Cellebrite, a developer and manufacturer of mobile forensic solutions, has rejected claims in the recent WikiLeaks "Spy Files" exposé that it is among companies that develop and supply equipment to governments and dictators "to spy on their citizens via mobile devices and computers." 

 The WikiLeaks page referring to Cellebrite states, "The Spy Files (open) thousands of pages and other materials exposing the global mass surveillance industry."

 Cellebrite states, "We absolutely refute the WikiLeaks "Spy Files" claims. Even a cursory glance at our company material will make it quite clear that Cellebrite is not involved in the surveillance or cyber-spying of citizens in any way whatsoever."

Well, that is true.  They just make a tool. A spoon manufacturer is not involved in making Rosie O'Donnell fat either. Cellebrite develops, manufactures and markets the Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED), which they say simply empowers law enforcement authorities around the world to extract and gather evidentiary data from mobiles devices, which will stand up under scrutiny in a court of law.  Since 150 countries in the world are dictatorships, 'court of law' doesn't really mean much, so WikiLeaks is probably correct in saying the tool is primarily for spying on citizens. 

 Yossi Carmil, Cellebrite's Co-CEO added, "Cellebrite is proud of the role it plays in fighting crime. We have been instrumental in helping solve cases of child abuse, drug dealing, tax evasion, anti-terror activities and more. The UFED has been recognized as a powerful tool to extract valuable information from a wide range of mobile devices, suspected of being used in or facilitating the commission of a crime." 

 While certain models within Cellebrite's UFED family of products are designed to extract evidentiary data such as contacts, messages, images, video, GPS fixes and more, they say this can only be achieved if the device is already in the possession of the investigating officer as part of the chain of evidence.  In a dictatorship, that is meaningless, of course.

 They say UFED cannot be used to observe and monitor the movement and activities of citizens - criminal or not. Neither can it be used to "hijack" someone's iPhone, implant viruses or to "bug" phones and other mobile devices in use and still under control of their owners.