Israeli Ad Firm Accused of Using Online Ads to Track Users and Enable Spyware Attacks

An Israeli digital advertising agency, Discover-Tech, allegedly used a vast network of online advertisements to track internet users and help surveillance firms hack their devices, according to research published Thursday by Citizen Lab and Confiant.

The Canadian cybersecurity research group Citizen Lab and New York-based advertising security firm Confiant published separate reports detailing how Discover-Tech allegedly connected surveillance operations with advertising platforms operated by Google, Comcast, Russia’s Yandex and other companies.

The findings highlight how online advertising, already a major privacy concern, can also provide a channel for large-scale digital surveillance.

“The way online advertising works today is a systemic security threat,” Wolfie Cristl, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, told Reuters.

Online Ads Allegedly Enabled Surveillance

According to Citizen Lab, Discover-Tech’s advertisements appeared across more than 120,000 websites and 75,000 apps through its advertising partnerships. Many ads promoted ordinary consumer products, including mobile phones and wireless earbuds.

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However, researchers said the advertisements could also help the company identify and track users. In some cases, the ads allegedly attempted to extract phone numbers from smartphone users.

The reports said an advertisement did not necessarily need a user to click on it to enable tracking. Simply loading certain ads on a website could expose users to surveillance.

Researchers also linked some Discover-Tech advertisements to attempts to install spyware developed by Candiru, an Israeli surveillance company that the US government blacklisted in 2021. Confiant stressed that the ads it linked to Candiru represented only a small fraction of Discover-Tech’s overall advertising activity.

Researchers Warn of Global Reach

Jerome Dangu, Confiant’s co-founder, said Discover-Tech distributed at least 10 million advertisements daily worldwide. He added that data-sharing arrangements known as cookie matching could allow the company to track people beyond the websites displaying its ads.

Dangu estimated that hundreds of millions of people might have encountered the company’s advertising network.

Discover-Tech, founded in 2020, did not respond to messages sent through its contact form, LinkedIn or emails addressed to its chief executive, Dekel Boni, according to Reuters. Reuters also reported that its attempts to contact Candiru’s owners were unsuccessful.

The US Commerce Department placed Candiru on its blacklist in 2021 over allegations that it supplied spyware used to target government officials, journalists, activists and academics.

Al Jazeera Devices Among Alleged Targets

Citizen Lab said it found evidence that powerful Candiru spyware, delivered through Discover-Tech advertisements, compromised 45 Windows devices at Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera between 2024 and 2025.

The research group said it confirmed the incidents after Al Jazeera shared its network logs. The broadcaster did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Confiant also reported that the advertisements appeared across hundreds of networks in sensitive sectors. These reportedly included the Pentagon, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the International Criminal Court.

Dangu said the Palestinian territories appeared particularly saturated with Discover-Tech advertisements, potentially giving the company broad visibility into online activity across the region.

Citizen Lab separately reported evidence of the ads appearing on networks associated with the United Nations, NATO, the European Commission and more than a dozen national governments. The researchers also identified networks connected to technology companies, including Nvidia, SanDisk, Broadcom and Micron, as well as several media organisations in Mexico, Israel and Europe.

Citizen Lab said Discover-Tech had inadvertently exposed authentication logs online. Those records showed logins from internet protocol addresses in Israel, Europe and the Gulf, offering researchers clues about the company’s possible user base.

Google and Other Platforms Take Action

Several advertising industry players have moved against Discover-Tech following the investigations.

Google said it worked with Citizen Lab and Confiant and removed the company from its advertising platforms for systematically violating its policies.

IAB Europe, an association representing the digital advertising industry, said it suspended Discover-Tech from its list of globally approved vendors the previous week after an audit identified policy violations.

Meanwhile, Comcast said its advertising technology subsidiary, Beeswax, removed Discover-Tech from its platform following recent activity. Yandex did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Advertising Surveillance Raises Security Concerns

The case adds to growing concerns about the national security risks associated with advertising technology and the commercial trade in location data.

Earlier this year, the Pentagon said it had received reports that advertising technology companies and data brokers had collected location data that could expose US forces deployed in conflict zones. Some branches of the US military subsequently disabled ad tracking on certain devices.

The latest findings underline the potential risks when ordinary advertising systems intersect with sophisticated surveillance tools, raising questions about how platforms protect users and enforce security standards across their advertising networks.