Cellebrite is a company based in Israel, used by several governments to extract info from phones of activists in support of Palestine. Cellebrite develops the Cellebrite UFED suite of products for law enforcement agencies and government entities. It enables the extraction of data from a wide range of mobile devices including some of the most recent Android devices and iPhone models, even without access to the device passcode.

A multiyear investigation found with high confidence that Jordanian security authorities have been using forensic extraction tools made by Cellebrite against members of civil society, including two political activists, a student organizer, and a human rights defender, the researchers said.

When Cellebrite’s tool is deployed by authorities who have physical access to a mobile phone, it can extract data including photos, videos, chats, files, saved passwords, location history, wifi history, phone usage records, web history, social media accounts and in some cases data that a user has attempted to delete.

The Citizen Lab, which investigates digital threats against civil society, said its forensic investigation of devices that were previously seized by authorities in Jordan, as well as court records shared with researchers, indicate that the use of Cellebrite by authorities “likely violated human rights treaties Jordan has ratified”. Under the international covenant on civil and political rights (ICCPR), Jordan is required to comply with strict limits on the targeting of political dissidents and civil society with surveillance technology.

Cellbrite was also used in Serbia to hack phones of activists and journalists according to an Amnesty International investigation.

In 2017 an unknown hacker has released 900 GB worth of confidential information from Cellebrite, including evidence files from siezed hacked phones and logs from Cellebrite extraction devices. The sheer amount of information further confirms that Cellebrite is a very popular option for mobile phone data extraction around the world.