An investigation details a spy tool called Patternz, which can track billions of phone profiles via ads in hundreds of thousands of apps, including 9gag and Kik
Hundreds of thousands of ordinary apps, including popular ones such as 9gag, Kik, and a series of caller ID apps …
404 MediaJoseph Cox
Context & Ripple Effects
Patternz extends a long-running pattern in which ostensibly free mobile apps connect users to large tracking ecosystems: earlier reporting found free Android apps contacting thousands of tracking and ad sites. The notable escalation here is the alleged use of ad-delivery infrastructure itself as the route to phone-profile surveillance across a very broad app footprint.
It also follows scrutiny of data collection hidden behind consumer-facing utilities, including Sensor Tower's use of VPN and ad-blocking apps to collect user data. The story matters because it places surveillance risk not only in an app's own code, but in the advertising supply chain embedded within it.
First-order effects
Users of affected apps may be exposed to profiling through the ads they receive, rather than through a feature they knowingly install or use.
App publishers and ad-tech partners associated with the reported footprint face immediate pressure to examine which advertising integrations and data flows are present in their products.
Second-order effects
Advertisers and app-distribution intermediaries may demand clearer provenance for audience data and tighter vetting of ad-tech vendors, since an embedded ad channel can create privacy and reputational exposure for parties beyond the surveillance operator.
The disclosure reinforces the compliance burden on apps that rely on third-party monetization: removing or changing a problematic partner can affect both data practices and advertising revenue.
Third-order effects
If similar investigations continue to show surveillance operating through ordinary ad inventory, the distinction between ad measurement and location-based intelligence gathering will become harder for platforms and regulators to police.
The broader structural pressure is toward more accountability for downstream data use in mobile advertising, rather than treating an app developer's privacy policy as the sole control point.
The trend: Mobile advertising infrastructure is increasingly being examined as a data-collection layer whose downstream uses can extend far beyond ad targeting.
In November, I revealed Patternz, a global mass surveillance tools based on digital advertising data, which monitors billions on behalf of national security agencies. — Today's 404 report from @josephcox confirms the relationship between Patternz and the digital advertising fir…
This is one of the clearest examinations of how ads in apps are powering mass surveillance yet. We follow through the apps, to ad companies, to the spy firm. It starts with these apps: 9gag, Kik, Truecaller. This is only demo numbers, total is 600k https://www.404media.co/... [im…
@WolfieChristl Ads in those apps connect to certain ad networks. I performed traffic analysis and found that 9gag, for example, does communicate with PubMatic. PubMatic is then shown in marketing material from the surveillance company https://www.404media.co/... [image]
Another day, another ugly look at the widespread abuse of the digital advertising system by nation-state linked entities — this time from @josephfcox using research from @WolfieChristl, @johnnyryan and @RonWyden about an Israeli company called Patternz. https://www.404media.co/..…
This follows the great work of @WolfieChristl. Here is a video in which Patternz's CEO pitches his product. The CEO filed a copyright claim while I was reporting so it has been removed from YouTube, but archived in part here. He says 600k apps in total https://www.404media.co/...…
Today's report from @josephfcox confirms the affiliation between the mass surveillance tool Patternz and the digital advertising firm Nuviad. After years (!) Google now cut them off from its RTB data. Regulators in the EU & other regions must investigate! https://twitter.com/...
New from 404 Media: inside a global phone spy tool that takes data from ads inside normal apps to monitor billions. Company removed videos while I was asking questions; we archived in the article. Google has now cut-off a connected company in response. https://www.404media.co/...