We publish a major Citizen Lab report on Webloc, an ad-based mass surveillance system that monitors the movements and personal characteristics of hundreds of millions people globally based on data obtained from mobile apps and digital advertising.

Customers include ICE, El Salvador and Hungary.

Our research shows that ad-based surveillance is now used by military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies down to local police in several countries.

Full report here:
https://citizenlab.ca/research/analysis-of-penlinks-ad-based-geolocation-surveillance-tech/

Alongside our report, Hungarian journalist Szabolcs Panyi publishes a VSquare investigation which reveals that Hungarian domestic intelligence has used Webloc since at least 2022, and still does today.

This is the first confirmation of the use of ad-based surveillance technology in Europe:
https://vsquare.org/orban-spying-toolkit-cobwebs-webloc-hungary-spyware-citizen-lab

Orbán’s Spying Kit Revealed: Israeli Surveillance Tool Combined with Hungarian Technology - VSquare.org

Intelligence agencies of Viktor Orbán's government have been secretly using Webloc — a mass surveillance tool that tracks hundreds of millions of people via smartphone advertising data — making Hungary the first confirmed EU country to deploy it, in likely violation of GDPR. Moreover, our investigation confirms the existence of "homegrown" OSINT and spyware tools.

VSquare.org

@wchr wann wird Ungarn aus der EU geworfen?

@EUCommission