• A California jury ordered NSO Group to pay Meta $168 million in damages over the illegal use of spyware through WhatsApp.
  • The court revealed NSO's $50 million research budget and disclosed clients including Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and Mexico.

In a decisive legal victory for Meta Platforms, a California jury has awarded the social media giant a total of $168 million in damages against Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group.

The ruling, which includes $444,719 in compensatory damages and $167.3 million in punitive damages, concludes a six-year legal battle centered on illegal spyware deployed through WhatsApp.

The dispute traces back to a 2019 lawsuit filed by WhatsApp, a Meta-owned messaging platform, which accused NSO of exploiting a vulnerability to plant spyware on users’ phones. A U.S. District Court judge had already ruled in December that NSO unlawfully used this flaw to breach the service.

"Today’s verdict in WhatsApp’s case is an important step forward for privacy and security as the first victory against the development and use of illegal spyware that threatens the safety and privacy of everyone," Meta said in a statement.

NSO, in its response, stated that it would “carefully examine the verdict’s details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal.”

A Blow to the Surveillance Industry

The case has been closely watched by human rights advocates and surveillance technology companies alike. NSO, which claims its software is used to track terrorists and pedophiles, has faced global criticism for enabling abusive surveillance in countries like Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Spain, and El Salvador.

"This is something that will hopefully show spyware companies that there will be consequences if you are careless, if you are brazen, and if you act in such a way as NSO did in these cases," said Natalia Krapiva, a senior lawyer at Access Now.

Court proceedings revealed rare details about NSO’s operations, including a 140-person research team and a $50 million budget partly used to exploit smartphone vulnerabilities.

Edited by Harshajit Sarmah