As Greece’s long-running spyware scandal moves further into the judicial phase — with proceedings advancing on felony charges including espionage and breaches of state secrecy — the political and institutional fallout from the Predator affair continues to weigh heavily on the country’s rule-of-law credentials. Critics of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government argue that, rather than ensuring full accountability, authorities have repeatedly extended favorable treatment to private individuals convicted of operating the Predator surveillance network in Greece.
Against this backdrop, Athens is set to host a major public discussion this week on the global spyware industry and its implications for democratic governance.
On May 21, the Athens-based think tank Eteron – Institute for Research and Social Change will organize a public event titled “Who Watches the Watchers? Spyware, the Rule of Law and the Defense of Democracy,” featuring cybersecurity expert and Citizen Lab founder Ron Deibert as keynote speaker.
Deibert, a professor at the University of Toronto and one of the world’s leading authorities on digital surveillance and commercial spyware, arrives in Greece at a particularly sensitive moment. His research center, The Citizen Lab, has been instrumental in uncovering the worldwide proliferation of spyware technologies and documenting their deployment against journalists, opposition politicians and civil society actors across numerous countries.
ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ ΕΠΙΣΗΣ
His appearance in Athens is expected to resonate well beyond Greece’s borders. The Predator scandal emerged as one of Europe’s most closely scrutinized surveillance controversies after revelations that politicians, journalists and public figures had been targeted through both state surveillance mechanisms and the Predator spyware platform.
The affair triggered investigations at both national and European levels, raising broader concerns over democratic oversight, media freedom and institutional accountability within the European Union.
The event will examine the international dimensions of the spyware industry, focusing on how the commercial surveillance market operates, why democratic institutions have struggled to regulate it and what lessons can be drawn from surveillance cases worldwide.
Following Deibert’s keynote address, a panel discussion will connect these global trends to the Greek experience. Participants include former communications privacy authority official and lawyer Aikaterini Papanikolaou, lawyer Zacharias Kesses - representing victims of the Predator surveillance operation - and a representative of digital rights organization Homo Digitalis. The discussion will be moderated by journalist Dora Anagnostopoulou.
The debate is expected to address questions increasingly central to democratic societies: who regulates the global spyware market, why accountability mechanisms remain weak, and what the consequences are for journalism, source protection, civil liberties and democratic governance.
At its core, the event seeks to confront a question that has become increasingly urgent across Europe: how democracies can establish meaningful oversight over surveillance technologies that often operate beyond public scrutiny while safeguarding the rule of law.
