Your apps are feeding a global surveillance machine

You probably have dozens of apps on your phone — and many of them are quietly collecting data about you: where you go, what you use, how you move. That data doesn’t just stay with the app. It flows through advertising systems, gets shared with third parties, and can end up far beyond its original purpose — in some cases, powering surveillance tools that track people’s movements in near real time.

Investigations show that this ad-driven data pipeline is already being used at scale, turning everyday app activity into detailed behavioral maps of millions of users. And the most unsettling part? This isn’t some hack or breach — it’s how the system is designed to work. The same ads that fund your apps may also be quietly feeding a much larger surveillance machine.

Follow your data trail

New on the blog

TechTok #13: Is your data training AI behind the scenes?

AI runs on massive amounts of data — and much of it comes from the same everyday tracking systems most people barely notice. In this TechTok, we break down how app activity, ads, and online interactions can quietly feed into AI training pipelines, often without clear visibility. Even if you never use AI tools directly, your data may still be part of the process.

See how AI gets data

TrustTunnel iOS app removed from Russia’s App Store

Apple has removed our iOS client for open-source TrustTunnel protocol from the Russian version of its App Store after a request from the Russian government. TrustTunnel itself is an open-source protocol that powers AdGuard VPN. As such it doesn’t bypass anything on its own and only works when users configure their own servers.

Why Apple removed it

Normalized surveillance

A first crackdown on a data broker

For years, apps quietly collected precise location data and passed it along to data brokers who built detailed profiles and sold them on. In a historic first, the US government has now stepped in to ban one major broker from selling sensitive location data without explicit consent, but the wider industry is still very much alive.

How your data was sold

Your phone number has a hidden score

Your phone activity — calls, usage patterns, even inactivity — can be turned into a “reputation score” that affects whether you can access certain online services. Billions of users are being profiled this way without their knowledge.

Learn how to opt out