Dangers of Pegasus for democracy

This time around, the issue of Pegasus is once again in the news even though the matter was earlier side-lined after the matter got the attention of the Supreme Court which then formed a committee to look into it. However, so far, nothing came out of it, until recently the New York Times carried a story which claimed that India bought the spyware from Israel in 2017.
The use of spyware which keeps track of a specified target, recording all the necessary parameters and storing the same, has created uproar around the world, while the US is mulling to ban the company which makes the spyware, scores of journalists have sued the state in Hungary for the use of the spyware against them.
After the NYT report and with the Parliament in-session, the opposition has alleged that the Government was hiding the facts while making an urgent appeal to the Supreme Court to step in to take note of it. While the matter is going to create furore during the current session of the parliament, there is a need for understanding the gravity of the situation.
The use of spyware Pegasus is not only the misuse of the technology but is dangerous for the democracy at the same time. The usage of such a technology is also the misuse of the individual data that can be used for fulfilling the vested interests of an individual or a system for an objective that will be in no way in the favour of a democratic setup.
We have seen names of opposition leaders, journalists and others who are the critics of the system coming out as the victims of the spyware—that should be enough to understand the line of assault by employing the use of such technology.
The matter is grave where individuals, as well as a system, are at stake and here the immediate intervention of the SC has become imperative to uphold the fundamental right to privacy.