Surveillance vendors caught abusing access to telcos to track people’s phone locations, researchers say
Researchers at Citizen Lab identified two surveillance vendors that exploited access to core cellular network infrastructure to track the physical locations of individuals across multiple countries. The findings suggest that commercial surveillance companies are misusing legitimate network access points to conduct targeted monitoring.
Why this matters: The cellular network was not built with a way for ordinary people to check who is watching them move through the world. Surveillance vendors with access to that backbone can track a phone without ever touching the device, without a visible app, and without the target knowing anything is wrong. This is not a hypothetical risk. Researchers found it happening to real people. The problem is not just the vendors — it is that telcos hold the keys to that access and someone decided to hand them over. That accountability question has no clean answer yet.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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