r/news • u/Trashbagok • 1d ago
Soft paywall Israeli firm used online ads to run vast spy operation, researchers say
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/israeli-firm-used-online-ads-run-vast-spy-operation-researchers-say-2026-10-15/803
u/runnerofshadows 1d ago
Is this why some groups are so against ad blocking?
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u/dgreenbe 1d ago
Probably not, but maybe it should be? Digital ads (and the economy connected to them) in general involve all of this tracking and surveillance and putting things on your screen that you don't want to see, plus associated risks.
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u/SomewhereNo8378 1d ago
the surveillance economy is certainly against it but maybe for different reasons.
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u/OMGMianiteS3Official 1d ago
Wait, from Israel?? Are you sure you've got that right? Because I for one am absolutely shocked by this revelation.
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u/OMGMianiteS3Official 1d ago
I would just like to state for the record that I am not suicidal and I have no intention of falling out of an open window
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u/VanillaLifestyle 1d ago
They won't push you out of a window. They'll remotely plant CSAM on your machine and then blackmail you forever.
Oh, unless you're within missile range. Then they'll just blow you up along with the nearest 30 random civilians. Then they'll come back a few days later to dismantle the crib of a baby they burned alive, in front of the grieving, wailing mother.*
*This is a real thing they did. Don't look up the video unless you want to be scarred for life.
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u/Disastrous_Berry4709 1d ago
I'm more shocked that it is an advertising company. I thought advertising companies were all good, honest folk. It has shook me to the core.
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u/NickoBicko 1d ago
Ads. Porn. Gambling. Spyware. Money laundering. All great exports of Israel.
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u/Saneless 1d ago
Along those lines, I wouldn't at all be shocked if we found out that Zuck personally begged them to start that online campaign. He doesn't care what you advertise as long as you do
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u/roman00000 1d ago
Israeli Surveillance Techniques are Sophisticated, the question is what other manners of surveillance do they have?
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u/PrettyCreative 1d ago
Wait, the same country who is the US' "greatest ally"? Why would they need to do that?
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u/StetCW 1d ago
is the spyware really named after the fish infamous for swimming up and blocking the urethra?
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u/Braisedbeefskank 1d ago
Remember if you said this a year ago they would call it an antisemetic conspiracy
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u/Jackthwolf 1d ago
If you say this now they will call it an antisemitic conspiracy.
They've just cried wolf so many times people have stopped listening→ More replies (1)23
u/snakebite75 1d ago
People have also started pushing back on every claim of antisemitism and pointing out that criticism of Israel is not the same as criticizing their religion.
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u/JustAnotherLich 1d ago
Just a reminder that John Kiriakou confirmed there are hundred plus Mossad officers in the US, and they're not on vacation. Surely nothing to be concerned about.
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u/Status_Fox_1474 1d ago
Every intelligence agency has people and spies in the U.S. including allies.
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u/Key_Fee158 1d ago
The difference is the FBI would actually do something if it knew there were spies from those other countries…Israel gets a free pass to spy brazenly.
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u/bomboclawt75 1d ago
Wild guess- nothing will be done about this? Nobody will be held accountable? Right?.
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u/lonelysparta 1d ago
They're trynna get away with actual genocide i don't think even registers, we just read about shit now and that's it. i hate it
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u/Fantastic-Purple2306 1d ago
Citizen Lab said a powerful form of Candiru spyware delivered through Discover-Tech's ads had been used to compromise 45 Windows devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera between 2024 and 2025, something it said it was able to confirm because the media group had shared its network logs with the group.
Honestly not surprised, Al Jazeera has blown the whistle on quite a few warcrimes the IDF has perpetrated in Gaza
Dangu of Confiant said that the malicious ads had been shown to users in "hundreds of networks in sensitive categories," including the Pentagon, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the International Criminal Court. He also said that some regions, like the Palestinian territories, were particularly saturated by the Israeli firm's ads.
And all these bodies too... the Pentagon to keep Isreal in the loop on what America's next moves are, the IAEA in case they want to move to inspect the isreali states nuclear arms (which officially don't exist btw) and the ICC, which still has the guts to issue arrest warrants on isreali politicians. I'm sure an explainer will be by shortly to tell us this is all above board.
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u/thepianoman456 1d ago
I’ve also noticed a strange trend on Instagram: any AI ad or any pro-AI post gets FLOODED with all these nearly identical comments saying “with love from Israel 🇮🇱!!” and so on. Like, a single ad post will get* hundred*s of those comments.
Does Israel have large scale bot farms like Russia?
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u/Typical_Response6444 1d ago
Regarding bot farms, Buddy I got some news for you. You might wanna sit down for it loll
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u/SagittariusO 1d ago
Israel has a massive cyber division with everything you can even dream of. There was an article a few years ago about a tech company that was spezialized in overthrowing governments with at least to confirmed hits in Africa.
They invented Stuxnet and pulled up the pager bombing. Israel is packed with defense startups and "cybersecruity" enterprises. Israel has like 10 million people but an online presence not even India could dream of. They are everywhere. This is not a coincidence.
I mean, online propaganda is just another weapon in an arsenal and "normal" coutries dont think about this stuff until shit hits the fan. Israel is constantly at war and they builded up some serious capacitys on this field.
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u/Yourealosergetalife 1d ago
Constantly at war by choice I might add
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u/Youre_worthless_to_e 1d ago
Yeah, the choice of the nations that put them there to be a proxy.
They didn’t give them the land that was entirely unrelated to their situation because what the Germans did was wrong or an old book said so.
They did it to have an excuse to always have some form of justification in the Middle East.
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u/SeaTeach9760 1d ago
You know what, i never really thought about it this way.
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u/Youre_worthless_to_e 1d ago
there’s a lot to it, and lots of evidence for it, but you sound like a conspiracy theorist when you lay it out. Or atleast, you used to.
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u/justadubliner 1d ago
Israel invented bots. Their cyber propaganda operations goes back well before social media. They were in the comments sections of every relevant article from the beginning.
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u/Jimjimjams3 1d ago
It’s people commenting ironically
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u/thepianoman456 1d ago
IDK, the posts are so identical and the accounts always see a bit off, or have like zero followers. But I wouldn’t doubt there’s real people mixed up in their simping for AI.
Just the fact that there’s sooooo many identical comments (usually with an Israeli flag) tips me off.
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u/ssshield 1d ago
Every country with a competent military has full scale bot farm influence farms.
There are untold numbers of military and contractors who run these. It's every bit as important as bullets and bombs.
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u/HotBrownFun 1d ago
yeah even the Pentagon has bot farms. Well. Both directly through US Cyber, and indirectly as contractors.
They hired bots to spread antivax info in the Philippines so they wouldn't use Chinese vaccines:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/
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u/TheFoshizzler 1d ago
i believe that is a meme. you’ll also see a lot of “israel lllooovvveeess this”. obviously bot farms too
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u/justadubliner 1d ago
Folks go watch NAZA at your local cinema. If you haven't been following the extent of cyber spying carried out on Gazans over the last 3 years in the media outlets that's had the guts to cover it, then seeing it laid out systematically in that documentary will blow your mind. This is the future of the world and it's beyond your worse nightmares.
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u/yikesamerica 1d ago
Trump’s campaign manager is running an influence campaign for Israel https://time.com/article/2026/07/13/brad-parscale-israel-influence-operation/
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u/A_Brown_Crayon 1d ago
Do these cunts ever contribute something positive to the world or just constantly spew pure evil forth
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u/reformedMedas 1d ago
The IDF ARE killing journalists left and right so they seem to try and hide it, somewhat.
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u/Optimal_Cow6108 1d ago
Israel is America’s greatest enemy, they always have been. The only nation that gets away with terrorizing us on our own soil
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u/KalaiProvenheim 1d ago
Startup nation!
Remember, when people say “we have to support Israel, if we don’t we’ll lose access to their technologies and research”, this is what they mean
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u/Actual__Wizard 11h ago
Wow man, why were 3rd party cookies suppose to go away in online advertising?
Oh right! So, evil people can't turn your computer into a tracking device with out your knowledge... Oh, but Google decided against it, and now people are being mass victimized...
There's nothing quite like a purely evil company simply deciding that you're not suppose to be safe while you use your browser.
Thank you Google may I have another?
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u/HotBrownFun 1d ago
How bad do you have to be to be blacklisted by the US government? As an Israeli??
>Users who visited sites or used apps with the malicious ads could be identified and tracked by Discover-Tech, which would sometimes also try to extract phone numbers from some smartphone users, the researchers said. Ads only needed to load on a website for the spying to occur.
Damn, all they needed to do is show an ad on a website and they'd hack in?
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u/CaptainONaps 1d ago
I keep seeing articles about horrible stuff that would be easily preventable, but there's no effort to prevent it, because the system that allows it isn't a bug, it's a feature.
I just read an article about a north Korean laptop farm in Texas, that was set up so North Koreans could work for tech companies in the states. But the US has no jurisdiction in North Korea, and refused to prosecute American businesses for hiring cheap illegal labor.
Or the article about the Russian data center going down, which throttled bots. But the US can't do anything about that, because foreign interference is a massive industry in the US. Tech companies, banks, private equity funds, and lawfirms are all making billions selling the service. So the government refused to regulate because they don't want to collapse the market.
This story is the same thing. We just cut funding to Israel. But obviously we can't do that, because it would wreck the market.
Meanwhile, you can google how China, or Malaysia, or Japan is dealing with these same issues, and they just turn that shit off. No questions asked.
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u/Gamer_Grease 1d ago
This is my main gripe with Israel as an American. Every time I find out about some new creepy spy shit, or some case where it seems like they’re trying really hard to make free speech, privacy, etc. illegal, Israel turns out to be involved. I understand that they use all this spy stuff and security for their whole thing with Palestine. I don’t like that they’re bringing it to the rest of the world so our governments can step on us as well.
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u/Caisers 1d ago edited 1d ago
Your main gripe isn’t the genocide they’re doing or them being an apartheid state ? It’s the spying ? Lol
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u/Few_Advisor3536 1d ago
Gonna play devils advocate here. Its because of the spying that they are getting away with war crimes. They have dirt on alot of influencial figures due to spying. Besides money or personal gain, it has to be blackmail right?
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u/redheadedandbold 1d ago
We've known Israelis were dirty players who fucked their "friends" since at least the USS Liberty.
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u/Kaliente13 1d ago
I know some people will call me antiseptic, but they’ve been a genocidal apartheid state for decades now, does this newest revelation really surprise anyone?
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u/salvito605 1d ago
I think Israel has to be the worst that humanity can produce in every way possible. I am pretty certain they will also cause the world to implode one day.
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u/ParameciaAntic 1d ago
Branches of the military have since disabled ad tracking on some devices.
How is this not routine cyber security procedure? My grandmother understands this.
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u/SebastianeBeauforte 1d ago
If you got an off brand Roku stick, you probably helping Israel cyber ops
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u/gambit87 1d ago
If Israel can get away with butchering tens of thousands of kids and openly committing a genocide. They can get away with this.
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u/thereisacowlvl 1d ago
I don't understand how a country that shouldn't exist (only been a things since 1950's and anexex land from another country because you know fuck brown people and THEIR RIGHTS, we only care about the rich and wealthy who wanted this land the browns had) has all this super tech like they're ready to rule the world.
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u/hhhisthegame 1d ago
By that logic, tons of countries 'shouldn't exist'. Im not saying its good to take land from others, but so many countries have been formed in this way. But this is the only country in the world that people say 'shouldn't exist'.
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u/KilllllerWhale 1d ago
The difference you're ignoring is that Israel is an ethnostate, and they claim the land was promised to them by God because they are "his chosen people". Now my problem and a lot of people's problem with that is the fact that it automatically puts them above anyone else, a master race if you will ...
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u/SampleOfFruits 1d ago
They claimed it because they were native to it
Also, as ethnostates go, it’s very bad at being one. Every Arab country, including Palestine, is more of an ethnostate than Israel is
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u/Mark-It_Maker 1d ago
This suggests you believe all Ethnostates should be eliminated. Is that what you want? All of them? Or just the one with the Joos?
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u/thereisacowlvl 1d ago
Can you give me a reason it should exist? Why did a group of wealthy Jewish men need to have a country? Why do they need billions of dollars given from the United States so that they can have tech like this for a country the size of New Jersey? Why does a country the size of New Jersey have SO MANY ENEMIES that they need billions of dollars for defense? Also, I may be wrong but isn't it all in a desert? So they purposely chose to annex land in a desert, pick constant fights with the neighbors who they have already stolen and now are committing genocide. in any normal society they would be labeled terrorists/ agressors but because they have money and are white they are the ones who need the help? Country that picks fights and only can because they have a nanny who they can go "UNITED STATES PALESTINE IS BEING MEAN TO ME!" shouldn't exist.
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u/hhhisthegame 1d ago
A reason it should exist is because the world tried to wipe out the Jews, and they deserve to have a place where they can self-govern and feel safe. The Holocaust is the reason that many felt that Israel should exist, a time when millions of Jews were murdered, even put into ovens, atrocities that are hard to imagine happening in the 1900s. Many Jews feel Israel should exist because they wanted a safe place to be where the government can never turn against them. The Holocaust answers a lot of questions on attitudes of Jews towards Israel. As you mentioned, it's a small country, it's the ONLY Jewish country, there are many Christian countries, many Muslim countries, but one tiny Jewish country. Whether or not you think US should support them, that is why it 'should exist' in the mind of many Jews. Why do they have 'SO MANY ENEMIES'? Jews have probably been asking that a lot in history. Yes, they have not made the situation better with their actions, but do you think the surrounding countries would otherwise be pro-Israel and that anti-semitism plays no role in the history of violence? They do not just pick fights with their neighbors, their neighbors also pick fights with them. I am not trying to say Israel is innocent, they have also done a lot of wrong here, but you are completely painting a one-sided brush on history and ignoring the Jewish/Israeli point of view completely.
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u/thereisacowlvl 1d ago
Having a religion control a state is not a good thing. Religion is a man made construct and an unchecked religion leads to a fascist authoritarian regime every time. Happened with the Christians, happened with the Muslims, and is being played out right now by The Israeli. Religion takes over a country and becomes a religious state. They pass laws that make it illegal to not be apart of the religion, this gives birth to the religious zealots who believe THEY know the TRUE word of God and THEY will bring forth god's will and that leads to crusades. Jews don't need their own country when there are plenty who openly accept them. I couldn't completely understand if they were hated everywhere in the world except in this one place but that's not the case. Also like the other person who commented the crimes that were inflicted on their ancestors does not give them a blank check to inflict those same crimes onto another group of people. Religion should be private not a country, a country should be a voice of its people not the voice of a religious figure who cannot be proven to exist.
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u/BeIgnored 1d ago
Palestinians should not have to pay for the crimes of Germany and the rest of Europe.
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u/Material_Reach_8827 1d ago edited 1d ago
Can you give me a reason it should exist?
Because the UN said it should, and they have a long history of being persecuted in other countries at various times, culminating in the Holocaust. A country allows them a place of their own where they can mount their own defense.
Why did a group of wealthy Jewish men need to have a country?
That is a blatant antisemitic lie.
Why do they need billions of dollars given from the United States so that they can have tech like this for a country the size of New Jersey?
This was a private firm. The US in no way subsidized it, and doesn't generally sponsor state-level efforts like this anyway.
Why does a country the size of New Jersey have SO MANY ENEMIES that they need billions of dollars for defense?
Because they are surrounded by a bunch of extreme right-wing religious zealots and theocracies (yes, even worse than Israeli zealots) who would destroy them if they could, and have tried multiple times, because they view it as their holy land, even though their religion is essentially a plagiarism of Judaism.
So they purposely chose to annex land in a desert, pick constant fights with the neighbors who they have already stolen and now are committing genocide.
What's an example of a fight they picked? The most recent one, Gaza picked it by attacking them on 10/7. Also please specify which definition of genocide you're using and explain how Israel is meeting that definition, in a way that none of the WW2 Allies were.
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u/thereisacowlvl 1d ago
They're surrounded by extremists who want the land that was stolen from them. If I came to your back yard cut out 25 percent of it and said "this is mine now, a group of people voted to say I could" you're just going to be fine with it? I could understand a little hostility if up until 80 years ago you had ALL of your country and then someone who claims a part of it as his birthrite or whatever and that's just fine and dandy? Maybe they shouldnt have chosen such a violent and hostile environment to be in if they were so worried about that? Wild to think people wouldnt be happy with someone showing up after nearly 2000 years and saying "this is mine, always has been and if you don't like it here my friend the big scary United States and he will not be happy if you touch me!" Then antagonize the other side constantly and act surprised when they retaliate.
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u/Amon_The_Silent 1d ago
What do you mean only been a thing since the 1950's? The movement to establish a Jewish state in the land of Israel has existed since the 19th century, and the state was founded in 1948
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u/NickoBicko 1d ago
Because all of the most evil people from the West ended up there. They welcome pedophiles and give them land and money.
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u/Jackthwolf 1d ago
An open air concentration camp makes for a great testing bed for authoritarian methods of control. (And crowd control, and weapons)
Add in outrageous funding from the Epstein class looking for ways to protect themselves from the general public as they steal more and more of your quality of life, and you get Israel.
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u/NoGuest6868 1d ago
Boycott, divest and sanction this apartheid regime engaged in ethnic cleansing. Stop voting for people supporting it and buying control and murder technologies tested on Palestinians. Prosecute bi-nationals engaged in war crimes in occupied palestine.
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u/TurnYourBrainOff 1d ago
Why are foreign governments even allowed to advertise their propaganda on Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc?
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u/callmemerryss 1d ago
The disturbing part is that ads didn't even need to be clicked. Just loading them could expose people to spyware and 45 al jazeera devices were reportedly targeted.