An Israeli ad company showed huge numbers of ads to people using Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, probably to track them. That is what researchers believe, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing six people who know about the work.
The researchers work at TrendAI, part of Japanese security firm Trend Micro. The sources said they found that the firm, Discover-Tech, was the top bidder for ads aimed at Starlink users in more than 100 countries. These included several where Starlink is banned or restricted.
Advertisers bid in split-second auctions to show ads in apps and on web pages. These auctions can leak details about the person who will see the ad, such as where they are and what device they use. Over time, that data can be used to work out who people are and follow them online.
TrendAI published a report on 15 October, but called the firm only “Shadow-Earth-79”. The sources told Reuters that it was TrendAI’s codename for Discover-Tech, and that executives dropped plans to name it over legal concerns.
The report said the firm was the top ad buyer in Syria, Libya, Yemen and South Sudan, even though there is almost no demand there for legitimate Western ads. It said, with moderate-to-high confidence, that this looked like “targeting and tracking infrastructure rather than a commercial advertising operation”.
Discover-Tech was already under scrutiny. On the same day, Canadian research group Citizen Lab said the firm had used targeted ads to help deliver spyware to devices at Al Jazeera, among others.
Ad security firm Confiant said its ads had appeared inside government and media networks. Google and others have since cut the company off from their ad platforms.
Discover-Tech did not respond to Reuters for over two weeks. SpaceX also did not reply.
Tracking Starlink users has become a business of its own. The dishes connect through SpaceX’s satellites, not local phone companies, so they can get around a country’s internet controls. Ukraine’s military, for example, relies on the service at the front line.
In May, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israeli-owned businesses were offering clients ways to identify and track Starlink users, with ad data playing a key role.
Starlink’s reach keeps growing, as SpaceX now seeks 80,000 cell sites in the US for its mobile plans.