Wire reporting: (Reuters, via Techmeme)

Researchers at TrendAI, a unit of Trend Micro, concluded that Israeli ad-tech company Discover-Tech was among the largest bidders for digital ads shown to users of SpaceX's Starlink service, in a likely effort to geolocate or otherwise surveil them, according to six people familiar with the matter cited by Reuters (via Al-Monitor).

The people said Discover-Tech was the top bidder on Starlink traffic in more than 100 countries, including places where Starlink is banned or restricted, based on TrendAI advertising telemetry. SpaceX, Discover-Tech and its chief executive did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

TrendAI on Oct. 15 described an ad-tech entity it called Shadow-Earth-79 without naming Discover-Tech; the six people said that was the firm's internal name for the company. TrendAI said its attribution practice is meant to reduce mistakes and avoid labels that could mislead defenders. The same day, Citizen Lab and Confiant named Discover-Tech, saying it abused ad bidding that can leak user data; Google, Comcast and others later said they removed it from ad platforms.

TrendAI's report said the entity was the top ad buyer in Syria, Libya, Yemen and South Sudan and No. 2 in Afghanistan, patterns it tied to tracking infrastructure rather than ordinary ads. Five of the people said TrendAI researchers wanted to name Discover-Tech but executives raised legal concerns. Reuters said at least one large U.S. tech company and one international organization have opened internal reviews of whether the ads targeted their staff.

Sources

1. (Reuters, via Techmeme)Sources: Trend Micro's TrendAI found Israeli adtech company Discover-Tech heavily targeted Starlink users in 100+ countries, likely to geolocate or surveil them (Raphael Satter/Reuters)8:05 AM

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