Source: Citizenlab
Citizen Lab exposed how a single ad-tech infrastructure—Webloc—monetizes location data from hundreds of millions of phones by selling access to real-time movement patterns. The ad ecosystem functions as a de facto surveillance layer operating without meaningful user consent or regulatory oversight. This is not a data breach or a rogue actor. It is how mobile advertising works at scale, which means fixing it requires dismantling profitable business models rather than patching a security hole. Governments, corporations, and intelligence agencies now have cheaper, more continuous access to population movement than ever before.