BREAKING: You checked the weather this morning.
And you just told a surveillance company where you sleep.
Meet #Webloc, used by ICE, cops & foreign govs to track 500m+ phones.
No warrant required.
Read on to understand our latest Citizen Lab investigation + how to protect yourself.
HEARD OF ADINT? Aka ADvertising INTelligence?
Your apps don't just show ads.
They stream info about your GPS location + a unique identifier to HUNDREDS OF BROKERS EVERY SECOND.
The industry swears the data is "anonymous" but it's actually a Spies-eye-view. Of everyone.
THE "ANONYMIZED DATA" LIE Companies peddle the BS that advertising data is 'anonymous'
They want to keep you in the dark.
Because, behind the scenes...your weather app is a blinking tracking beacon.
And then players like Pen Link turn that beacon into a data flow.
And sell it to governments.
EXPORT-GRADE SURVEILLANCE Where does #Webloc, a tool that can monitor entire populations come from?
Well, it originated from notorious Israeli surveillance firm Cobwebs.
But like so many surveillance products, it's gone through some corporate ownership shuffling.
Now, it's sold by Pen Link. https://blossom.primal.net/cebecd52265591ed4b736653b3103df62606f939076f664a82fb3e97c0f3c5ac.png
YOUR AMERICAN RIGHTS DON'T PROTECT YOU American? Think you're protected by the 4th Amendment from ADINT?
I know my rights, get a warrant... right?
Well, some sheriff is just going to pull out the credit card & buy it.
EUROPE? NOT MUCH BETTER You're 🇪🇺European? Protected by #GDPR, right?
It may be a paper wall.
We sent 96 FOI requests & got some dubious answers.
Meanwhile our collaborator Szabolcs Panyi found multiple intel agencies in 🇭🇺#Hungary using Cobweb products.
If that's not bad enough, the Hungarian government filed charges against Szabolcs while he was collaborating with us.
That's after he revealed Russian influence operations targeting Hungary's upcoming election.
(He's also a past target of #Pegasus spyware...)
ONLY THE WORST BAD GUYS...RIGHT? 'We only use mass surveillance against the worst bad guys'
Tucson Police bought #webloc for sex trafficking.
And wound up using it to hunt a guy stealing cigarette packs from a CircleK gas station. https://blossom.primal.net/e0fdfe40c5806d221fe0ac763aedfd25e2914b8d9e2a85ead67550809c3acf3a.png
And monitor political protests (against Kamala Harris)
Mass surveillance turns regular citizens into surveillance targets.
And long history shows that the federal government has an insatiable appetite for tracking law-abiding people with inconvenient politics.
Whatever their stripe.
IT GETS WORSE Think #webloc is bad? Meet another Cobwebs product: #trapdoor.
Hallmarks of a hidden hacking kit + social engineering tools.
Shady looking stuff & much more investigation needed.
OH HAI BIG TECH Here's the thing, tons of this technology is hosted by big platforms.
And a sign of how surveillance vendors seek to leverage commercial relationships & infrastructure of big cloud providers.
TELL ME HOW TO STOP THIS Real talk, it's hard, but you can help starve the ADINT dragnet. Do this now:
IPHONE: ⚙️Settings➡️Privacy & Security➡️ Tracking
Turn off "Allow Apps to Request to Track"
ANDROID: ⚙️Settings➡️Privacy ➡️ Ads ➡️Delete Advertising ID
It's only a beginning, but you don't owe any of these companies a drop of your data.
TAKEAWAY Ad-tech built a warrantless surveillance system in the guise of a marketing tool.
You are the target. So are your kids. And your friends.
And it's being abused by some of the worst autocrats & security forces around the world.
The ADINT machinery is targeting you.
Search for your country & start asking questions.
It's time to bring more sunlight to this industry.
READ OUR FULL REPORT: https://citizenlab.ca/research/analysis-of-penlinks-ad-based-geolocation-surveillance-tech/
By my brilliant Citizen Lab colleagues Wolfie Christl, Astrid Perry, Luis Fernando Garcia, Siena Anstis, and Ron Deibert
GO DEEPER Want to learn more about #penlink & #webloc? There's some great reporting out there.
Like this investigation by 404 Media / Joseph Cox
https://www.404media.co/inside-ices-tool-to-monitor-phones-in-entire-neighborhoods/
Another good piece by Forbes' Thomas Fox Brewster: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2025/09/18/ice-spends-millions-on-social-media-spy-tech-banned-by-meta-facebook/
It's simple, your #privacy #security and #freedom are at constant risk by private companies that help governments trample on your rights.
They deserve maximum exposure. Thanks for reading!