Indonesia’s rights groups call for transparency in nation’s purchases of foreign spyware: ‘anyone can be a target’

The investigation, undertaken by rights watchdog Amnesty International’s Security Lab and news outlets, says the spyware was bought between 2017 and 2023 and used by state agencies such as the national police and Indonesia’s primary intelligence agency.

Companies and state agencies in Indonesia imported the spyware from vendors such as Luxembourg-based Q Cyber Technologies, which has been linked to Israel’s NSO Group; Israel-based Wintego Systems and Saito Tech; and Malaysia-based Raedarius M8, the report said.

The “murky ecosystem” of vendors, brokers and resellers with “complex ownership structures” has also made it hard for public procurement oversight, Amnesty said.

“If Indonesia really is a democracy they should have an oversight mechanism … on the procurement [of the surveillance tools] and their implementation,” said Andreas Harsono, an Indonesian researcher with Human Rights Watch.

Nenden Sekar Arum, executive director at Jakarta-based SAFENet that advocates freedom of speech in Indonesia, said the public “has the right to this information, as the tools were bought using state funds”.

Amnesty International worked with several news outlets on the investigation, including Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Indonesia’s local news site Tempo.

Indonesian police spokesman Brigadier General Tjahjono Saputro declined requests by Tempo to comment on the purchase of the spy software.

Spokesmen from the national police and Indonesia’s intelligence agency did not immediately respond to This Week in Asia’s requests for comment.

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Andreas said news of Indonesian state agencies purchasing surveillance tools from Israel was “nothing new”, as Indonesia has had trade and