Advertisements displayed on phones were spying. A startling study has revealed that an Israeli company was using advertisements to spy on them. Find out how the spying was taking place.
Israeli company spying
When we see an advertisement on our screen while browsing the internet or using an app, we often ignore it, thinking it's normal. But could you imagine that these seemingly innocuous ads could be spying on you? New research from cyber safety research groups Citizen Lab and Confiant has created a stir in the internet world.
According to this revelation, Israeli digital advertising agency Discover Tech had spread a vast network of espionage across the world under the guise of online advertisements. The company was tracking people by showing advertisements for everyday goods and secretly implanting spyware into their phones and computers. This company has been linked to Candiru, a notorious Israeli spyware firm blacklisted by the US, whose dangerous software was implanted into devices through these advertisements.
One crore spy advertisements were run daily
Research has revealed that Discover Tech used the networks of the world's largest ad platforms, such as Google, Comcast, and Russia's Yandex, to display its ads. According to Citizen Lab, this Israeli company's ads were running on more than 120,000 websites and 75,000 mobile apps worldwide. Most alarmingly, a user didn't even need to click on an ad to become a victim.
Discover Tech would track a person as soon as they opened such a website or app and an advertisement loaded on the screen. According to Jerome Dungo, co-founder of Confiant, the company ran at least 10 million ads daily and tracked millions of people using cookie matching technology.
From the Pentagon, the United Nations, and Al-Jazeera to Palestine
This spying network not only targeted ordinary internet users but also organizations considered the world's most secure. According to researchers, these spying ads reached the networks of the US Department of Defense, the Pentagon, the United Nations, NATO, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the International Criminal Court, and the European Commission, as well as the tech giant Nvidia.
Citizen Lab has confirmed in its investigation that between 2024 and 2025, 45 Windows devices of Qatar's famous media organization Al Jazeera were targeted and hacked by spyware sent through these advertisements.
In the Palestinian territories, these advertisements were plentiful. Discover Tech ads were present on nearly every website there, allowing the Israeli firm to keep a close eye on digital activity across the region 24/7, unnoticed.
Tech companies came into action after the revelations
This sensational revelation has raised serious questions about internet safety worldwide, and major tech companies have taken immediate action. Google, while cooperating with the investigation by Citizen Lab and Confiant, has removed Discover Tech from its advertising platform for repeatedly violating its policies. Similarly, Comcast's ad-tech company, Beejwax, has also removed the Israeli firm from its platform.
Meanwhile, the European Digital Marketing Organization has also suspended Discover Tech from its list of approved vendors after an audit. This spying through ads has now become a major threat to national security. Previously, the Pentagon also expressed concern that US soldiers deployed in war zones were targeted using location data from ad-tech companies, after which ad tracking has been disabled on many military devices.
