[mike_d]

Countries have very little interest in regulating these groups because of the value of fourth-party collection.

If Israel for example provides software to Morocco that is used to spy on Algeria, Israel gets free intelligence on Algeria. It is even more valuable than directly spying on Algeria because it is absolutely deniable and may target foreign spies or terrorists that might not have been on Israel's radar to start with.

While spying on journalists and NGOs is horrific from a human rights perspective, it is sadly of little significance to how the intelligence game is played.