ABOUT

We are a grassroots collective of technologists, threat researchers, developers, and incident responders working at the intersection of technology and human rights. Our mission is to defend and support human rights defenders, with a primary focus on East and Southeast Asia.

Spyware research in the civil society space is currently dominated by a handful of organizations with privileged access to information, closed-source tools, and methodologies. This creates high barriers to entry for local research labs, researchers, and responders, reinforcing an unhealthy dependency on big tech. These structural bottlenecks limit civil society’s ability to detect, investigate, and mitigate spyware threats at scale.

We exist to challenge that.

Our work addresses critical gaps in spyware research, with the goal of enabling localized, decentralized, and public-interest threat labs to emerge around the world. For example, we specialize in threat research capabilities on Android devices—which account for over 72% of the global mobile market and are the primary platforms used in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

By building open-source, community-driven tools and methodologies, we aim to decolonize and democratize threat research. We want to see independent, civic-led, public-interest investigations thrive—free from centralized control.

All of our tools are developed in-house, ensuring full technological provenance, sovereignty, transparency, and trust. Nothing is outsourced; nothing is proprietary.

Our work isn’t just about tech—it’s about accessibility. By lowering the barriers to digital forensics and investigation, we ensure that no journalist, activist, or human rights defender is left without the support they need to stay safe.

We work closely with our sister organization, SecurityMatters, and collaborate with partners such as CDR and the Open Technology Fund (OTF).