The Ford Foundation has announced grants totaling more than $4 million through the Spyware Accountability Initiative to address the harms of the global spyware industry on civil society.

The foundation’s Dignity and Justice Fund, fiscally sponsored by the New Venture Fund, was launched in 2022 with a founding contribution by Apple and additional support from Open Society Foundations, Okta for Good, and Craig Newmark Philanthropies.

The initiative aims to develop a global field of civil society organizations that are advancing threat research, advocacy, and accountability to address the use and trade of spyware. According to the foundation, state and non-state actors have used spyware to track and intimidate human rights defenders, political dissidents, and environmental activists in recent years.

The grants are focused in the areas of international advocacy and litigation, investigations and research, as well as spurring development and strengthening organizations in the Global South. Recipients include Amnesty International’s Amnesty Tech (global), the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (global), Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (United States), Citizen Lab (Canada), Hiperderecho (Peru), Media Diversity Institute (Armenia), SocialTIC (Mexico), Spaces For Change (Nigeria), and Unwanted Witness (Uganda).

“Addressing the global spyware industry cannot be the work of any one company or funder or government; it requires an approach as interconnected as our world is today,” said Ford Foundation Technology and Society program director Lori McGlinchey. “Ford Foundation is proud to be a part of the Spyware Accountability Initiative, which harnesses the resources and technical prowess of Apple, the funding and social justice acumen of philanthropy, and the cutting edge research and advocacy of civil society worldwide. The Spyware Accountability Initiative is a major step toward confronting and neutralizing the threat mercenary spyware poses to human rights defenders, journalists, and dissidents around the globe.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Anna Stills)