Cellebrite and the routine use of digital surveillance in Italy

In recent years, authorities in several countries have intensified their use of digital surveillance tools to access mobile devices, often without proper adherence to legal procedures and without the informed consent of those affected—sometimes in blatant violation of existing laws, as demonstrated by the current Paragon and Graphite case. Osservatorio Nessuno recently assisted members of the No CPR Torino assembly (a collective opposing Italy’s Centri di Permanenza per il Rimpatrio, detention centers for migrants awaiting deportation) in discovering that their phones had been unlocked and forensically analyzed using Cellebrite tools, without being given sufficient prior notice to allow their legal consultants to verify that the procedure was conducted lawfully.