The Citizen Lab: Webloc is a global geolocation surveillance system that monitors hundreds of millions of people based on data purchased from consumer apps and digital advertising. It was developed by Cobwebs Technologies and is now sold by its successor Penlink.
In collaboration with the European investigative journalism platform VSquare, we reveal that Hungarian domestic intelligence has been using Webloc since at least 2022 and continues to use it as of today. Webloc customers also include the national police in El Salvador.
…Based on the responses to 96 freedom of information requests we conclude that governments in Europe and the U.K. are highly nontransparent about their potential use of ad-based surveillance…