April 17, 2026
Your phone snitched, the comments detonated
It Is Time to Ban the Sale of Precise Geolocation
‘Creepy’ phone tracking tool sparks revolt: “Ban it all,” readers roar
TLDR: A report says Webloc, sold by Penlink, uses ad data to track hundreds of millions of phones and ties it to social profiles. Readers erupt: some demand a total ban on precise location sales, others push warrant-only rules, and many scoff at “anonymized” claims—calling it a privacy and national security risk.
Citizen Lab just dropped receipts on Webloc, an ad-based tracker claiming data from up to 500 million phones—and the internet is not okay. The tool, now sold by Penlink, can follow a device’s every move and even link anonymous phone IDs to social media via its Tangles platform. Examples in the report include a man pinged 12 times a day in Abu Dhabi and police using it to nab a serial cigarette thief. “Useful? Sure,” readers say. “Terrifying? Absolutely.”
The comment section turned into a privacy pile-on. One user deadpanned: “Don’t you want random companies to store your precise location for 12 years?” Another camp demands a warrant-only rule—no warrant, no tracking. And the scorched-earth crowd wants to torch the whole ad-surveillance economy: ban precise location sales, ban adtracking, and take those hated cookie pop-ups with it. The “it’s anonymized” defense? Roasted—people point out that precise home/work patterns can unmask anyone.
Amid the chaos, some concede these tools can solve crimes—but insist they shouldn’t be for sale to “whoever swipes a credit card.” The shared mood: creepy tech, flimsy safeguards, and a rallying cry for lawmakers to step in. Receipts and screenshots are already circulating via Citizen Lab.
Key Points
- •Citizen Lab analyzed Webloc, an ad-based geolocation surveillance tool developed by Cobweb Technologies and sold by Penlink after their 2023 merger.
- •A leaked proposal claims Webloc accesses records from up to 500 million mobile devices, including identifiers, coordinates, and profile data from apps and ads.
- •Case studies show Webloc tracking individuals’ movements (e.g., in Abu Dhabi) and correlating device presence across countries (Romania, Italy).
- •U.S. customers include DHS (with ICE), units of the U.S. military, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Police, and state/local agencies in CA, TX, NY, and AZ; Tucson PD reported an investigative use case.
- •Webloc integrates with Penlink’s Tangles platform, which analyzes public social media data; the article calls for tighter oversight and restrictions on collecting/selling precise geolocation data.