President Donald Trump seems to be making moves to turn the United States into a surveillance state. The Trump administration appears to have unfrozen a stalled $2 million Biden-era contract with Paragon Solutions (US) Inc., a spyware company founded in Israel whose products have been accused of facilitating the surveillance of journalists and activists.
“Invasive, secret hacking power is corrupting,” John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, which has probed the foreign use of Paragon products, told The Guardian. “That’s why there’s a growing pile of spyware scandals in democracies, including with Paragon’s Graphite.”
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Paragon Solutions is an Israeli surveillance technology company founded in 2019, known for developing advanced spyware tools like Graphite, which can infiltrate encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Signal. Co-founded by former intelligence officials, including a former commander of Unit 8200 Ehud Barak, Paragon has positioned itself as a more “ethical” alternative to other controversial spyware firms.
Despite this claim, its software has been linked to surveillance operations targeting journalists and activists, with WhatsApp reporting in 2024 that Paragon’s tools were used in attempts to compromise nearly 90 individuals. The company recently secured a $2 million contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), reactivated in 2025 after a federal review. Citizen Lab and other watchdogs have connected Paragon’s spyware to deployments by government agencies in Italy, Canada, and Australia, raising ongoing concerns about privacy, human rights, and the unchecked global use of commercial surveillance technology.
On Saturday, a public procurement database showed that a stop work order on the September 2024 deal with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been lifted, technology journalist Jack Poulson reported on his All-Source Intelligence Substack.
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The New York Times reported in 2022 that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has previously used Graphite against drug traffickers outside the US.
The renewed contract between the U.S. government and Paragon Solutions highlights the growing intersection of surveillance technology and national security efforts, raising significant ethical and privacy concerns. While governments argue such tools are necessary to combat crime and terrorism, the potential misuse of invasive spyware like Paragon’s Graphite, known for targeting journalists, activists, and vulnerable groups, exposes serious risks of abuse and unchecked surveillance.
The involvement of prominent intelligence figures in Paragon’s leadership and the company’s claim to be a more “ethical” spyware provider have not prevented controversy or global scrutiny. As democratic nations grapple with balancing security needs and civil liberties, transparency and oversight remain crucial to prevent the erosion of privacy rights.