Researchers said Israeli ad agency Discover-Tech used online advertising to track internet users and help deliver spyware, with ads reaching more than 120,000 websites and 75,000 apps. Google removed the firm from its ad platforms, and IAB Europe suspended its approved-vendor status.
Discover-Tech used a network of online ads to identify and track users and, in some cases, try to extract phone numbers from smartphone users, researchers at Citizen Lab and Confiant said. Some ads helped deliver spyware from Candiru, although Confiant said those ads were a tiny fraction of Discover-Tech's overall volume.
Citizen Lab said Discover-Tech ads reached more than 120,000 websites and 75,000 apps. Confiant said the firm was serving at least 10 million ads a day and that its data-sharing arrangements likely exposed hundreds of millions of people. The groups said ads appeared across sensitive networks, including government and international organizations.
Google said it removed Discover-Tech from its ad platforms for systematically violating its policies. IAB Europe suspended the company from its list of globally approved vendors after an audit identified policy violations, and Comcast's ad tech subsidiary Beeswax also removed it. Citizen Lab said Candiru spyware delivered through the ads compromised 45 Windows devices at Al Jazeera between 2024 and 2025.
