Special Report: Cyber-intel firms pitch governments on spy tools to trace coronavirus

FILE PHOTO: Police officers monitor traffic on the streets from surveillance camera footages as Argentine President Alberto Fernandez announced an extension of the lockdown it has imposed as a measure to control the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Buenos Aires, Argentina April 10, 2020. REUTERS/Matias Baglietto/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When law enforcement agencies want to gather evidence locked inside an iPhone, they often turn to hacking software from the Israeli firm Cellebrite. By manually plugging the software into a suspect’s phone, police can break in and determine where the person has gone and whom he or she has met.

Now, as governments fight the spread of COVID-19, Cellebrite is pitching the same capability to help authorities learn who a coronavirus sufferer may have infected. When someone tests positive, authorities can siphon up the patient’s location data and contacts, making it easy to “quarantine the right people,” according to a Cellebrite email pitch to the Delhi police force this month.