Mobile phone numbers belonging to Princess Haya bint al-Hussein of Dubai, her closest aides, advisers and friends, were being entered into a computer system operated by agents of the emirate of Dubai, one of the clients of spyware manufacturer NSO Group, The Guardian reported. Closest aides and friends of emir's ex-wife also began to appear on database as she moved to the UK. As her plane touched down in April 2019, Princess Haya, who was accompanied by her two children, might have hoped she was beyond the reach of her ex-husband, the emir of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

The phone numbers of Haya, and eight of her close associates, appear in a dataset believed to indicate people of interest to a government client of NSO. That data has been obtained by Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, and analysed by media organisations around the world, including the Guardian. The numbers in the leaked records include those of Haya's personal assistant, senior staff at her private security firm, and even one of the lawyers advising her in her custody dispute with Sheikh Mohammed.