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Google Removes Discover-Tech After Candiru Spyware Ads

By Drooid · Oct 15, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC · How we work

Summary

Discover-Tech Deploys Spyware Ads

Discover-Tech placed online ads that delivered Candiru spyware and spied on internet users.
The firm served about 10 million ads daily across 120,000 sites and 75,000 apps.
Candiru ads compromised 45 Windows devices at Qatar’s Al Jazeera between 2024 and 2025.
Google removed Discover-Tech from its ad platforms for policy violations.
Industry groups IAB Europe and Comcast’s Beeswax suspended Discover-Tech.

Summary

Integrity Labs Entity-Listed

Candiru, aka Integrity Labs, has been on the U.S. Commerce Department’s Entity List since 2021.
Researchers breached Discover-Tech’s Controlium portal, stealing employee credentials and billions of ad-bidding records.
Bidding data showed ads on devices used by militaries, infrastructure and national cyber agencies in early 2026.
The report advises disabling mobile Advertising IDs and using ad-blocking software.
Citizen Lab urges immediate legal and regulatory action to stop malicious exploitation of online ads.

History

Historical Context

The 2013 Facebook app “This Is Your Digital Life,” built by Aleksandr Kogan, let Cambridge Analytica harvest data from up to 87 million users, a breach exposed by whistle-blower Christopher Wylie in March 2018 and followed by UK ICO fines and a $5 billion FTC penalty. Today Discover-Tech’s Candiru spyware repeats that model, pushing malicious ads on 120,000 sites and compromising devices such as Al Jazeera’s.

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Discover-Tech Deploys Spyware Ads

Discover-Tech placed online ads that delivered Candiru spyware and spied on internet users.
The firm served about 10 million ads daily across 120,000 sites and 75,000 apps.
Candiru ads compromised 45 Windows devices at Qatar’s Al Jazeera between 2024 and 2025.
Google removed Discover-Tech from its ad platforms for policy violations.
Industry groups IAB Europe and Comcast’s Beeswax suspended Discover-Tech.

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