Security Agencies Worldwide Found to Use Ad-Based Surveillance System

An investigation by Bloomberg into Penlink's ad-based surveillance system Webloc builds off Citizen Lab research and identifies additional customers of the tracking technology. Citizen Lab says its earlier report identified Webloc customers in the US, El Salvador, and Hungary, while Bloomberg found customers in additional countries. Senior researcher Wolfie Christl describes Webloc as a powerful mass surveillance tool moving from military and intelligence agencies to federal law enforcement and then state and local police.

What Citizen Lab found

Citizen Lab used open source research, freedom of information requests, and server infrastructure mapping to identify Webloc customers in the US, El Salvador, and Hungary. Since then, the Austrian Ministry of the Interior has also been confirmed as a customer. Bloomberg's investigation identified customers in additional countries including the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Israel. The findings that Webloc has been acquired by security agencies in a number of countries align with potential customers identified in Citizen Lab's April report.

Concerns over use

Wolfie Christl notes that Webloc 'is a powerful mass surveillance tool that's trickling down from military and intelligence agencies to federal law enforcement and then to state and local police.' Citizen Lab says the lawfulness of using these systems in Europe and the UK is highly controversial. While intrusive and disproportionate ad-based mass surveillance is problematic everywhere, its use in authoritarian countries identified by reporting is particularly dangerous.

Related updates

In collaboration with the SHARE Foundation, Citizen Lab found with high confidence that Professor Vladan Dokić, Rector of the University of Belgrade and prominent supporter of the Serbian student movement, was hacked with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware in 2026. Additionally, Rade Bajić, who as a prosecutor investigated official corruption in a failed project in Belgrade, received an Apple Threat Notification. These notifications are high-confidence indicators of targeting with mercenary spyware such as Pegasus, and Citizen Lab says its investigations into these cases are ongoing.

Sources: citizenlab.ca