Security Agencies Worldwide Found to Use Ad-Based Surveillance System

Webloc, an advertising-based surveillance system owned by Penlink, uses data generated through digital ads to track people’s locations. Its spread among security agencies shows how commercial advertising data can become a tool for large-scale monitoring. Citizen Lab researchers identified customers through open-source research, freedom-of-information requests, and mapping server infrastructure, finding use in the United States, El Salvador, and Hungary. Austria’s Ministry of the Interior was later confirmed as another customer.

Further investigation identified agencies using Webloc in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel. The pattern reflects surveillance technology moving from military and intelligence organizations into federal law enforcement and then state and local police. Its use raises serious legal and civil-liberties concerns: intrusive, disproportionate monitoring based on advertising data is problematic in any country, and especially dangerous where governments have authoritarian practices. The legality of these systems is highly contested in Europe and the UK, underscoring the need to scrutinize how agencies obtain and use people’s location data.