India clears Israeli firm Cellebrite to supply phone-hacking tools to government agencies

India has exempted Israeli surveillance company Cellebrite from domestic procurement rules, allowing government agencies to purchase its phone-extraction and hacking technology, an investigation has found. The digital-rights group Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) found that Home Minister Amit Shah approved a waiver for the National Investigation Agency (NIA), clearing the way for the purchase of at least 422 foreign forensic products, including Cellebrite tools. The technology can extract data from seized devices and use recovered login tokens to access more than 100 cloud services, including social media platforms such as Instagram, X and Tinder. Digital-rights experts have warned that the expansion of surveillance capabilities raises serious privacy concerns, with India's existing laws offering inadequate safeguards against excessive monitoring. On 10 Oct Delhi Police detained @dhruv_rathee and took his phone. On @kunalkamra88’s podcast with @ShyamMeeraSingh he said he believes they tried to clone it with Cellebrite. We can’t verify that. But we can show what the government buys. (1/10) Writes @Vikram0Raj : https://t.co/3bhCjsokAb — Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) (@internetfreedom) November 7, 2026