Spyware company NSO Group’s co-founder Shalev Hulio used an Israeli diplomatic passport to enter Panama in 2013, raising questions over the firm’s claims of independence from the Israeli state.
They’re allowed to exist because they will exist regardless if they’re legal or not. Their main (and likely only) customers are governments, so they’ll find shelter in whatever country allows them to operate and prosper there.
You could say the same about drug cartels and most governments spend billions of dollars fighting them while outlawing their products and sanctioning countries/governments which allow them.
I don’t expect the US Navy is going to be launching missiles at programmers in speedboats anytime soon, but it would be easy to sanction these companies and cut them off from the banking system.
Except the government is run by people in the pockets of the companies and countries who are doing this.
They’re allowed to exist because they will exist regardless if they’re legal or not. Their main (and likely only) customers are governments, so they’ll find shelter in whatever country allows them to operate and prosper there.
You could say the same about drug cartels and most governments spend billions of dollars fighting them while outlawing their products and sanctioning countries/governments which allow them.
I don’t expect the US Navy is going to be launching missiles at programmers in speedboats anytime soon, but it would be easy to sanction these companies and cut them off from the banking system.
Except the government is run by people in the pockets of the companies and countries who are doing this.