I worry, too. Regulators do hatchet jobs when it comes to software law. But slippery slopes aside, it's pretty clear that selling tools to take over phones en masse is a bad deal for free societies.

Here's what we will find next: military and political leaders' phones have also already been compromised by NSO Group tools. I feel confident it has happened at a higher rate than among journalists. Imagine both your favorite and your most hated political firebrands: how will their rhetoric sound when they realize they've been pwned by the opposition for the past year using COTS tools?