A new investigative report by the University of Toronto–based Citizen Lab has documented that Jordanian authorities have used digital forensic tools produced by the Israeli technology firm Cellebrite to extract data from the mobile phones of civil society activists without their consent, according to the researchers’ published findings. The report states that between January 2024 and June 2025, Citizen Lab forensically examined three iPhones and one Android device belonging to activists who had been detained, arrested, or interrogated by Jordanian authorities, and identified iOS and Android indicators of compromise attributed with high confidence to Cellebrite’s forensic extraction products. The researchers said court records reviewed during the investigation showed that Cellebrite tools were used in criminal prosecutions against activists and members of Jordanian civil society in ways that did not align with international human rights treaties ratified by Jordan, and they assessed these practices as likely inconsistent with those obligations.
Regional and International Scrutiny of Cellebrite Technology and Human Rights Compliance
Citizen Lab reported that all four devices it examined had been subjected to forensic extraction using Cellebrite technology after being seized by authorities and later returned to their owners, including one case involving a student activist detained and interrogated at Jordan’s General Intelligence Department, commonly known as the Mukhabarat. According to the report, when the individual recovered their phone from Amman’s Cybercrime Unit following release from custody, the device’s passcode was found written on tape attached to the phone, despite the activist not having provided the code during questioning. The report contextualized these findings amid a broader environment in which hundreds of people have been detained and interrogated in Jordan over the past year, including individuals expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, and noted increasing public criticism of the security services following a death in custody last year. Citizen Lab further observed that Cellebrite products, developed by an Israeli company whose largest shareholder is Japan-based Sun Corporation, have been used by multiple governments worldwide, including in cases involving the extraction of data from the phones of Reuters journalists imprisoned in Myanmar and against pro-democracy activists and journalists in Russia.