--- title: Israeli ad tech firm heavily targeted Starlink users,... description: Researchers believe an Israeli ad tech firm used ad auctions to track Starlink users in more than 100 countries, Reuters reports, citing six sources. The firm,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/israeli-ad-tech-firm-heavily-targeted-starlink-users-sources-say-2wejmyjf2 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Israeli ad tech firm heavily targeted Starlink users, sources say | daily.dev og:description: Researchers believe an Israeli ad tech firm used ad auctions to track Starlink users in more than 100 countries, Reuters reports, citing six sources. The firm,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/israeli-ad-tech-firm-heavily-targeted-starlink-users-sources-say-2wejmyjf2 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/2wEJmYjF2.png og:image:alt: Israeli ad tech firm heavily targeted Starlink users, sources say og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Israeli ad tech firm heavily targeted Starlink users, sources say **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Researchers believe an Israeli ad tech firm used ad auctions to track Starlink users in more than 100 countries, Reuters reports, citing six sources. The firm, Discover-Tech, was the top bidder for ads aimed at Starlink users in more than 100 countries, including several where Starlink is banned or restricted. TrendAI, part of Trend Micro, reported with moderate-to-high confidence that the activity looked like 'targeting and tracking infrastructure rather than a commercial advertising operation' in an October 15 report that called the firm 'Shadow-Earth-79'. Citizen Lab separately said the firm had used targeted ads to help deliver spyware to devices at Al Jazeera. Google and others have since cut the company off from their ad platforms. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How can ad auction bidding be used to track someone's location or identity? Real-time ad bidding auctions can leak details like a device's location and type to advertisers, since advertisers bid in split-second auctions to show ads in apps and web pages. Over time, that leaked data can be pieced together to identify and follow specific individuals online, which researchers say happened with Starlink users targeted by an Israeli ad firm. _Developers building ad-supported apps can see how ad bidding data exposure becomes a privacy risk on daily.dev._ ### What did Citizen Lab find about Discover-Tech and spyware delivery? Citizen Lab reported that Discover-Tech used targeted ads to help deliver spyware to devices, including ones at Al Jazeera. This came out the same day TrendAI, part of Trend Micro, published research calling the firm 'Shadow-Earth-79' and describing it as tracking infrastructure rather than a legitimate ad operation, in more than 100 countries. _Security engineers tracking ad-based spyware delivery chains can follow cases like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Iran takes on Starlink in high-stakes bid to silence dissent](https://daily.dev/posts/iran-takes-on-starlink-in-high-stakes-bid-to-silence-dissent-lfwpxsykw) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Starlink claims Chinese launch nearly hit broadband sat](https://daily.dev/posts/starlink-claims-chinese-launch-nearly-hit-broadband-sat-ophi7dpwx) · The Register · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Privacy alarm as SpaceX opens Starlink user data to AI models](https://daily.dev/posts/privacy-alarm-as-spacex-opens-starlink-user-data-to-ai-models-d76fyhlft) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/israeli-ad-tech-firm-heavily-targeted-starlink-users-sources-say-2wejmyjf2) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Israeli ad tech firm heavily targeted Starlink users, sources say","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/israeli-ad-tech-firm-heavily-targeted-starlink-users-sources-say-2wejmyjf2","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/israeli-ad-tech-firm-heavily-targeted-starlink-users-sources-say-2wejmyjf2"},"datePublished":"2026-10-27T12:11:59.636Z","dateModified":"2026-10-28T06:34:16.816Z","description":"Researchers believe an Israeli ad tech firm used ad auctions to track Starlink users in more than 100 countries, Reuters reports, citing six sources. 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