Vivek Sundara

The social and environmental activist based in Mumbai said he was contacted about the breach a week ago. “I received a message from a researcher at Citizen Lab. The messages said I was facing a digital risk, but I didn’t take it seriously and deleted it. Two days later, I got the message that it was a serious risk and that they needed to talk to me. Again, I ignored it. The next day, I received a message on WhatsApp explaining the risk and asking me to contact Citizen Lab, which is in Canada.”

Sundara added, “I was told that using a missed voice call or a link my phone was accessed in order to take my contacts, email, Facebook and other details. They mentioned that it was a spyware. It’s quite clear that the government is involved in this.”

Ashish Gupta

Gupta, an activist with the Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, was told that he was under surveillance on October 6. “I was informed by Citizen Lab through a text message and then a call. They asked me whether I was aware that my WhatsApp had been tapped. I said I didn’t know about WhatsApp but, yes, my phone was being tapped. This is definitely being done by the Indian government. Why would Israel be interested in a person like me?”

He added, “I told the Citizen Lab researcher about something that happened in July: I was removed from all WhatsApp groups, even the ones where I was the administrator. He asked if he could report this incident to WhatsApp. I said yes. He assured me that they would help me with this issue.”

Ankit Grewal

The Chandigarh-based lawyer who has represented Sudha Bhardwaj and assisted the lawyer Vrinda Grover with the petition filed by Romila Thapar and other eminent citizens in the Supreme Court seeking a fair investigation into the Bhima Koregaon case was contacted by Citizen Lab on October 5. “They informed me my phone had been attacked with a spyware. The researcher also said I would receive a communication from WhatsApp which I did recently.”

He added, “I don’t know why somebody would want to snoop on me. Maybe it’s because of the kind of cases I am handling,” he said.