{"rewrite":{"id":"r_1f3cf4cacade5c3432ccc8d5","clusterId":"c_4a3f5fc9c37155fbc1b1dcd5","slug":"trendai-researchers-tie-discovery-tech-ad-bids-to-starlink-user-surveillance","model":"deepseek-v4-1-flash","headline":"TrendAI Researchers Tie Discovery-Tech Ad Bids to Starlink User Surveillance","summary":"A TrendAI report says Israeli ad company Discovery-Tech bid heavily on Starlink traffic and may have used those ads to locate and surveil users. The report refers to the company by the codename SHADOW-EARTH-79. Discovery-Tech ranked first in bid amounts on Starlink traffic in 105 countries, including states where Starlink is restricted. Google and Comcast have removed its ads.","whyItMatters":"An ad company outbidding everyone for Starlink traffic in 105 countries, including places where the service is banned, turns routine programmatic bidding into a location-tracking channel for satellite internet users.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003eDiscovery-Tech bid on 91.1% of all bid opportunities in Hungary and 90.1% in Israel, according to the TrendAI analysis. Those ratios were also high in Egypt, Azerbaijan, Venezuela, Thailand, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. On Starlink traffic specifically, the Los Angeles-based SteelHouse placed the most bids at 196,791 (38.4%), with Discovery-Tech second at 66,208 (12.9%). Discovery-Tech still led on bid amounts in 105 countries, among them Cameroon, Syria, Sudan, Myanmar, and Libya, where Starlink is officially prohibited or restricted. TrendAI flags two geofeed mismatches: an IP range identified as Myanmar shows as Canada, and one identified as Sudan shows as Niger.\u003c/p\u003e","blueskyPost":"TrendAI researchers say Discovery-Tech bid heavily on Starlink ad traffic and may have used the ads to find and surveil users. It led Starlink bid amounts in 105 countries, including places where Starlink is banned. Google and Comcast have pulled its ads.","twitterPost":"TrendAI says Israeli ad firm Discovery-Tech may have used Starlink ad bids to locate and surveil users. It ranked first in Starlink bid amounts in 105 countries, including states where Starlink is restricted. Google and Comcast removed its ads.","threadsPost":null,"newsletterBlurb":"A TrendAI report says Discovery-Tech, referred to as SHADOW-EARTH-79, bid heavily on Starlink ad traffic and may have used those ads to identify and surveil users' locations. The company led Starlink bid amounts in 105 countries, including Cameroon, Syria, Sudan, Myanmar, and Libya, where Starlink is officially prohibited or restricted. Google and Comcast have removed Discovery-Tech's ads from their platforms.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"GIGAZINE\",\"url\":\"https://gigazine.net/news/20261028-israeli-company-targeted-starlink-users/\",\"title\":\"Israeli Company Likely Placed Ads to Identify and Surveil Starlink Users' Locations\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":5255,"outputTokens":784,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1793160268,"createdAt":"2026-10-28T03:59:06.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-10-28T04:03:25.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-28T04:03:25.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_4a3f5fc9c37155fbc1b1dcd5","canonicalTitle":"イスラエル企業がStarlinkユーザーの位置情報特定や監視を目的として広告を出稿していた可能性大","representativeArticleId":"a_006f19b8f1c9f80790ad32d2","sourceCount":1,"writtenSourceCount":1,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":true,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[\"Starlink\"],\"studios\":[\"Discovery-Tech\"],\"people\":[],\"type\":\"news\",\"domain\":\"other\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"published","firstSeenAt":"2026-10-28T03:14:00.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-10-28T03:14:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-28T04:03:24.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"GIGAZINE","url":"https://gigazine.net/news/20261028-israeli-company-targeted-starlink-users/","title":"イスラエル企業がStarlinkユーザーの位置情報特定や監視を目的として広告を出稿していた可能性大"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":[],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":["Starlink"],"studios":["Discovery-Tech"],"people":[],"type":"news","domain":"other","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":["TrendAI researchers found Discovery-Tech bid on 12.9% of Starlink bid opportunities, second behind SteelHouse at 38.4%.","Discovery-Tech ranked first in bid amounts on Starlink traffic in 105 countries.","Those countries include Cameroon, Syria, Sudan, Myanmar, and Libya, where Starlink is officially prohibited or restricted.","TrendAI refers to Discovery-Tech by the codename SHADOW-EARTH-79 in its published report.","Google and Comcast have removed Discovery-Tech's ads from their advertising platforms."],"pageLinks":{"healthSlugs":["starlink","discovery-tech"],"storySlugs":[],"entities":[{"slug":"starlink","supported":1,"disputed":0,"contradicted":0,"unverified":1,"overall":"green","story_count":2,"has_dossier":false},{"slug":"discovery-tech","supported":0,"disputed":0,"contradicted":0,"unverified":2,"overall":"unverified","story_count":1,"has_dossier":false}],"stories":[],"entitiesOk":true,"storiesOk":true}}