Pegasus is worse than porn

When businessman Raj Kundra was arrested for allegedly producing and distributing pornographic films actor Kangana Ranaut called the movie industry a ldquogutterrdquo and said it needed a ldquoconsciencerdquo and a ldquowhiprdquo This was in sharp contrast to her social media post on Pegasusgate Referring to kings in ancient times wearing disguises to figure out what troubled their subjects Kangana said ldquoNo big deal if the king wants to know about antisocial elementrsquos whereaboutshellip So hyenas stop crying foulrdquo And then tongue in cheek she said she was not talking about PegasusThe actorrsquos conflicting responses are typically the average Indianrsquosmdashthey froth and fume against the porn industry yet are indifferent or endorse the statemandated tapping of phones as allegedly happened in Pegasusgate So what is worse porn or PegasusThe porn industry has the producer the distributor the actor and the consumer as its major players The exploitation of women is rife in the industry For instance the case against Kundra was initiated by one who claimed she had been compelled to act in a lsquodirty picturersquo The production and distribution of porn films are illegal in India But not the watching of porn in privacyThe impact of porn on consumers is intensely debated For every research that says pornographic films lead to the objectification of women encourage sexual aggression make fuzzy the divide between reality and fantasy and damage the lives of couples there is another negating these conclusions There is though consensus that watching porn can be addictive Much like alcohol porn addiction is perceived to be a manifestation of unresolved psychological problems of individuals with consequences for them as perilous as those alcoholics can encounterJust as porn represents the extremity of the genre of erotica the use of Pegasus for tapping phones is the most insidious form of cyber surveillance Israel licenses the Pegasus spyware to the state Thus only the state can mandate its use The state is in porn parlance the producer who captures from the data of phones of citizens their everyday stories Since the state is the sole consumer of these stories it becomes the violator of the rights of those whom it is supposed to protectWorse the surveilled are oblivious that the most intimate aspects of their lives have been archived They lack the smidgen of autonomy that porn actors can claim This is amply borne out by whistleblower Edward Snowdenrsquos 2014 interview to The Guardian newspaper about his experience of snooping on people for the United States of Americarsquos National Security Agency He said his colleagues would stumble upon ldquonude photos of someone in a sexually compromising situationrdquo These would be then passed around Snowden said ldquoSooner or later this personrsquos whole life has been seen by all of these other peoplerdquoIn Power is Privacy academician Carissa Veliz cites chilling consequences of hacking which is the function Pegasus carries out with supreme efficiency In 2015 hackers released the personal details of around 30 million people registered with Ashely Madison a dating site for married couples The hackers claimed they wanted to teach cheaters a lesson Veacuteliz says almost all had sleepless nights some lost their jobs and many were subjected to blackmailIn 2017 criminals broke into the database of a Lithuanian cosmetic surgery clinic and blackmailed patients belonging to about 60 countries Around 25000 photos were published including nude ones of those who refused to pay In Spain bank loans were taken using the stolen identity of one Ramona Maria Faghiura who was repeatedly hauled up for defaults In 2017 criminals accessed the personal data of 147 million Americans registered with Equifax a data brokerage company Such data breaches are psychologically debilitating and erode social trustEarly last month Americarsquos Justice Department indicted three Chinese security officials for coordinating the hacking of government entities universities and corporations to steal sensitive information The Chinese could argue it is their revenge against America hacking into their websites as Snowdenrsquos revelations showed China electronically tracks its citizens to assign them ldquosocial creditrdquo For instance a person found behaving in a socially inappropriate way loses on his or her social credit points Veacuteliz writes ldquoIn February 2017 the Supreme Peoplersquos Court announced that 615 million people had been banned from taking flights in the last four years for having committed lsquosocial misdeedrsquordquoThere is nothing to suggest the secret files on those hit with Pegasus have been leaked into the public domain They anyway constitute a small subset of the people targeted for snooping It is quite possible there are storiesmdashwhich we may never knowmdashof people whose secret lives were exploited to compel them to do the statersquos bidding or to act as their Trojan horse among groups opposed to it In this era of mass surveillance all citizens are potential victims of those who control the levers of power Their addiction to snoop on citizens is a manifestation of their hidden fears of losing power of becoming impotent The nature scale secrecy and randomness of the surveillance possible with Pegasus make it worse than porn Wonder why Kangana cannot get thatThe writer is a senior journalist Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper