Can an ‘ethical’ spyware maker justify providing its tech to ICE?

Paragon, an Israeli spyware company that claims to operate as an “ethical” surveillance vendor, faced scrutiny when earlier this year Italy was caught using Paragon’s tools to spy on the phones of two journalists. Paragon responded by cutting Italy off from its surveillance products, becoming the first spyware company to ever publicly name one of its customers after the misuse of its products.

Now, Paragon might face a new ethical dilemma: whether or not it will allow ICE agents to use its spyware.

A $2 million one-year contract that Paragon signed in September 2024 with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) remains under review and has not yet taken effect, and Paragon has so far not supplied ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations with its spyware tools, the company told TechCrunch. 

Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has authorized ICE to carry out large-scale immigration raids across the U.S., leading to the detention of thousands of migrants — and numerous U.S. citizens — in part thanks to data stored in federal databases and using technology provided by govtech giant Palantir. Considering ICE is poised to get a significantly larger budget following the passing of Trump’s flagship Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, spyware could serve as a powerful surveillance tool in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations.

With two months left before the contract expires, Paragon may never supply its spyware to ICE. But until the contract runs out on September 29, the U.S. government could approve it at any moment, forcing Paragon to make a decision about the use of its tools on U.S. soil.

Right now, the company doesn’t want to talk about this dilemma at all. When asked by TechCrunch, Paragon would not say what it plans to do if the contract passes review, or clarify what will happen with its relationship with ICE if the contract goes forward. 

Paragon’s contract with ICE has been on pause since the paperwork was signed. Homeland Security issued a near-immediate stop-work order with the goal of reviewing whether the contract complied with a Biden-era executive order. The order restricts U.S. government agencies from using commercial spyware that could (or has been) abused by foreign governments to violate human rights, or to target Americans abroad. 

At the time, a Biden administration official told Wired that the U.S. government had “immediately engaged” top leadership at Homeland Security, which houses ICE, to determine if the contract met the requirements of the executive order.

Nine months on, Paragon’s contract with ICE remains in limbo, and officials in the Trump White House did not have an update on its status.

Trump administration spokesperson Abigail Jackson referred TechCrunch’s questions to Homeland Security, and would not comment, when asked, about the Trump administration’s position on the Biden-era spyware executive order, which remains in effect. 

A spokesperson for Homeland Security and ICE did not provide comment when contacted by TechCrunch.

Spyware companies have historically been reticent to name their customers in any context, often for fear of reputational damage or risking lucrative government contracts. After WhatsApp revealed earlier this year that around 90 of its users, including journalists and human rights dissidents, had been targeted with Paragon’s spyware, the company sought to distance itself from the hacks. Paragon’s executive chairman John Fleming told TechCrunch then that it only sells to “a select group of global democracies — principally, the United States and its allies.”

In other words, Paragon wanted the world to know that it would sell to responsible government customers, and its response to the Italy scandal appears to reinforce the company’s position. 

But in calling itself an ethical spyware vendor, Paragon has put the onus on itself to judge who it deals with. In doing so, the company has also opened the door for others to scrutinize its government customers and their ethics — whether they are the Italian government or ICE. As governments and their leaders change over time, Paragon may face the choice of having to re-evaluate who it works with.

“Given this administration’s record of attacks on human rights and civil society organizations, we hope that Paragon would reconsider the agreement,” said Michael De Dora, the U.S. advocacy manager at Access Now, a nonprofit that has worked to expose spyware abuses.