Jordan’s security forces are wielding an Israeli digital weapon to strip-mine the mobile phones of activists and protesters who criticise Israel or stand with Gaza, a new investigation by the Citizen Lab has revealed.
A years-long probe found with high confidence that Jordanian authorities have been deploying forensic extraction tools made by Cellebrite against civil society members—two political activists, a student organiser, and a human rights defender among them.
When authorities get their hands on someone’s phone, Cellebrite’s kit can hoover up everything: photos, videos, chats, files, saved passwords, location history, wifi connections, phone records, browsing history, social media accounts—even data users thought they’d deleted.
The Citizen Lab, which tracks digital threats against civil society, conducted a forensic analysis of devices previously seized by Jordanian authorities and examined court records. It found that the use of Cellebrite “likely violated human rights treaties Jordan has ratified”. Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Jordan is supposed to observe strict limits on surveilling political dissidents and civil society.
Researchers analysed four phones between January 2024 and June 2025 belonging to Jordanian civil society members who’d been detained, arrested, or interrogated. Every single one had been subjected to Cellebrite extraction.
The names of those targeted haven’t been released—the individuals fear reprisals. In one case detailed in the Citizen Lab report, a political activist’s iPhone was confiscated after interrogation by Jordan’s General Intelligence Department. They held onto it for 35 days.
In another case, a student activist refused to hand over their passcode. So officers simply held the phone up to the activist’s face and unlocked it using Face ID. The next day, they imprisoned the activist. When released and given the phone back, the activist found their passcode scribbled on a piece of tape stuck to the back. Later analysis showed the device had been connected to external equipment attributed to Cellebrite—and to a cybercrime unit in Amman—whilst in custody.
A Cellebrite spokesperson told the Guardian that unlike spyware from outfits like NSO Group, their technology is forensic and used to “access private data only in accordance with legal due process or with appropriate consent to aid investigations legally after an event has occurred”.
The company, the spokesperson said, vets potential customers against internal human rights standards and has “historically ceased business in jurisdictions where risks were deemed incompatible with our corporate values”. They added: “We take seriously all allegations of potential misuse of our technology in ways that would run counter to both explicit and implied conditions outlined in our end-user agreement.”
Cellebrite products have reportedly been used against civil society in Myanmar, Botswana, Serbia, and Belarus as well.
(With information from The Guardian)
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