WhatsApp Malware Suit Against Israeli Spyware Firm to Stay in US

Robert Burnson, Bloomberg News

The logo for Facebook Inc. WhatsApp messaging app arranged on a smartphone in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on Wednesday Jan. 20, 2021. WhatsApp has delayed the introduction of a new privacy policy announced earlier this month after confusion and user backlash forced the messaging service to better explain what data it collects and how it shares that information with parent company, Facebook Inc. Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- An Israeli spyware company that was sued by WhatsApp Inc. four years ago over an alleged malware-hacking scheme failed to persuade a US judge to move the dispute to its home country.

US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton rejected NSO Group’s argument that American restrictions on data transfers would hamper the company’s ability to defend itself in federal court in Oakland, California.

WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook Inc. sued NSO in 2019, accusing it of using a since-closed vulnerability in the messaging service to install spyware on the phones of at least 1,400 users.

Facebook, now a unit of Meta Platforms Inc., had support in an earlier stage of the litigation from Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and other tech giants, which described NSO’s cyber-surveillance tools as “dangerous.”

Read More: Google and Others Back Facebook Lawsuit Over Surveillance Tool

Hamilton was unpersuaded by NSO’s argument that it was unfair to make the company defend itself in the US. She ruled that NSO had failed to identify “bona fide restrictions” that would limit its access to evidence and said the company didn’t show how “those restrictions would provide less of an obstacle if the case were to proceed in Israel.”

NSO didn’t immediately respond do a request for comment.

The case is WhatsApp Inc. v. NSO Group Technologies Limited, 19-cv-07123, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).