Human rights advocates are calling on the Israeli tech firm Cellebrite to review its contracts with Georgia, which plans to renew licenses for software used to extract data from mobile devices amid a crackdown on civil society and media.
On Tuesday, Georgia published procurement data showing that the Ministry of Internal Affairs plans to renew existing licenses for Cellebrite’s mobile forensic products, and purchase new ones, in a package worth $2.4 million.
The software enables law enforcement to gain access and extract data from the phones of suspected criminals. But Amnesty International recently published evidence that Serbian authorities deployed the technology against journalists and human rights activists while the government was besieged by mass protests.
Similarly, Georgians have been taking to the streets every night for more than three months to protest allegedly flawed elections that cemented the power of the Georgian Dream party. The party, which has passed authoritarian laws seemingly modelled on those in Russia, has responded with violence and intimidation.
“Given the Georgian authorities’ escalating clampdown on dissent, the sale of powerful mobile data extractions tools like Cellebrite’s raises grave human rights concerns,” said Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, head of Amnesty International’s Security Lab, in an email.
He urged Cellebrite to “urgently investigate if their products in Georgia may be used as tools of repression.”
There is no evidence that Georgian authorities have so far deployed Cellebrite tools against protestors, activists, journalists or political opposition members.
Cellebrite did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
The company announced on Tuesday that it was halting the use of its products in Serbia following its review of the allegations of misuse documented by Amnesty International.
“We assess countries we do business with — both on an annual and ad-hoc basis due to political and cultural shifts,” the company said in its statement, adding that “lawful use of our technology is paramount to our mission of accelerating justice and saving lives around the world.”
Israeli human rights lawyer Eitay Mack said the company’s promises are not reassuring enough, especially with the ongoing crackdown in Georgia.
"We already see all the people that are being detained,” he told OCCRP. “It seems like some of it in Georgia is arbitrary, but a lot of it is selective."
Georgia’s internal affairs ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
In December, Mack wrote to Israel’s Ministry of Defense, which he said ultimately authorizes Cellebrite’s exports, urging it to block sales to Georgia.
Mack had previously called on the ministry to ban sales of the firm’s technology to authoritarian states like Russia and Belarus. Cellebrite announced in March 2021 it would no longer sell to the two countries.
Cellebrite appears to be concerned about potential restrictions on sales in Georgia, according to a letter dated February 13, which was included in data published on the country’s public procurement portal.
In the letter to an interior ministry official, a Cellebrite sales director in Georgia refers to a “sensitive issue," warning that his local office “could be blocked from selling our equipment.”
“Therefore, I would like to advise you that if you are planning a purchase this year, please try to make it as early as possible,” the Cellebrite sales director wrote.
The letter did not explain what the sensitive issue was, or why the company was considering halting sales.
