Overview

• The European Commission declared any illegal access to citizens’ data unacceptable and promised to employ all available tools to ensure effective application of Union law.
• Investigations identified Francesco Cancellato and activist Luca Casarini among those surveilled for months via continuous audio and video feeds from Graphite on their devices.
• Paragon maintained that it severed connections to all Italian clients after Rome rejected its proposal to verify and audit the spyware’s deployment.
• EU rules such as the e-Privacy Directive bar interception of communications without user consent and judicial oversight, and the European Media Freedom Act will add source protections from August 2025.
• Opposition figures, notably M5S’s Gaetano Pedullà, accused the Italian government of a nontransparent probe and warned that key questions about who ordered the surveillance remain unanswered.