Surveillance vendors caught abusing access to telcos to track people's locations
by mentalgear on 4/23/2026, 12:12:03 PM
Comments
by: aetherspawn
Yeah, a friend of mine was tracked by a stalker ex boyfriend who worked at a Telco.<p>It was irritatingly difficult to avoid because it seemed he could look up her SIM card by name and then get her location no matter what (new SIM, new phone)<p>Anyone who reports this kind of thing to the police just sounds irrational and crazy and gets ignored.
4/23/2026, 12:36:41 PM
by: mentalgear
> Gary Miller, one of the researchers who investigated these attacks, told TechCrunch that some clues point to an “Israeli-based commercial geo-intelligence provider with specialized telecom capabilities,” but did not name the surveillance provider. Several Israeli companies are known to offer similar services, such as Circles (later acquired by spyware maker NSO Group), Cognyte, and Rayzone.
4/23/2026, 1:20:15 PM
by: Anonyneko
This is just par for the course in Russia. Government has telcos track people, and that data ends up available on the black market for anyone to purchase, for a fairly modest fee. The government has been recently trying (with uncertain degree of success) to crack down on the latter, as this was frequently used by the opposition journalists and investigators to uncover the details of the government's own nefarious plots.<p>The data is cross-referenced with other telcos, other SIM cards, Wi-Fi hotspots (anonymous public hotspots are outlawed), street cams, and many other databases, so it's basically impossible to avoid being tracked.<p>Probably inevitable to become the norm everywhere in the world.
4/23/2026, 1:02:15 PM
by: Rob_Polding
In my country 95% of people don't mind Meta tracking their location with WhatsApp, so I think the days of people caring about tracking are long gone!<p>I am the exception and believe in privacy, and I've not used a Meta app since I tested Facebook/WhatsApp back in 2010 and soon uninstalled them as I don't want a digital portfolio to be developed on me for advertisers. Same with Google, they can whistle for my personal information, but they won't get it!<p>I'm sure surveillance companies have an even easier time buying data from Meta/WhatsApp so that's even more worrying as people use different ISPs so 95% of people won't be traced by any one ISP, but Meta and Google have the location information of anyone gullible enough to use their services.
4/23/2026, 1:27:31 PM
by: throwaw12
> ... Israeli-based commercial geo-intelligence provider with specialized telecom capabilities ...<p>why are they good at these kind of things - security, hacks, surveillance, 0-days?
4/23/2026, 12:52:44 PM
by: faxuss
Everyone does it, they just got caught.
4/23/2026, 1:52:01 PM
by: dfc
I get a 404 when I try and view the CitizenLab report:<p><a href="https://citizenlab.ca/research/uncovering-global-telecom-exploitation-by-covert-surveillance-actors/" rel="nofollow">https://citizenlab.ca/research/uncovering-global-telecom-exp...</a>
4/23/2026, 1:16:52 PM
by: rurban
They do have the death penalty now in Israel. So it might get interesting for those bosses
4/23/2026, 12:57:08 PM
by: walrus01
Why is the citizen lab report URL suddenly a 404?
4/23/2026, 1:23:41 PM
by: therobots927
Oh would you look at that: “Israeli-based commercial geo-intelligence provider with specialized telecom capabilities.”<p>Make no mistake, the people of Gaza and Lebanon are being used as guinea pigs for highly invasive surveillance technology that could easily be pointed at any of us if we step out of line.<p>And yes I said <i>people</i> of Gaza, not <i>tellhullists</i> as they’re referred to in Zion.
4/23/2026, 12:40:38 PM
by: fchicken
Color me shocked
4/23/2026, 1:04:09 PM
by: arjunthazhath
jesus christ!
4/23/2026, 12:54:41 PM