The big global story that's taken the world by storm is the Pegasus snooping scandal, which has been unearthed by 17 media organisations, Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International has thrown up names of heads of state, prime ministers, royal families, activists, journalists and business tycoons who were spied on.

French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraq President Barham Salih, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, Hanan Elatr, wife of deceased Journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Princess Latifa, daughter of Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum among others were on the list of people who's phones were hacked into.

Many big faces from India were also potential targets -- including Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, cabinet ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Prahlad Singh Patel -- other names include Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani, former CBI chief Alok Verma and envoy of the Dalai Lama in New Delhi Tempa Tsering.

The Pegasus spyware is a surveillance technology built by Israeli firm NSO group, which sells the software to governments to prevent terrorism and crime.

The spyware can be installed via an SMS, WhatsApp, iMessage and allows the recipient to access the target's SMS, email, WhatsApp conversations, photos, contact book, location, record calls and can even activate a device's microphone and camera.

Israel, France, Algeria and Hungary have now launched investigations into this unlawful surveillance.

To know its implications and decode the legalities involved, CNBC-TV18's Parikshit Luthra spoke to Israeli Human Rights Lawyer Eitay Mack, Tech Editor and Reporter of Haaretz.com Omer Benjakob and journalist at Le Monde, Damien Leloup.

Watch the video to know more.

(Edited by : Jerome Anthony)