Trove of surveillance data challenges what we thought we knew about location tracking tools, who they target and how far they have spread

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Most countries have a legal mandate to carry out domestic phone network surveillance. The First Wap archive demonstrates, however, how phone network connections can be leveraged to allow tracking all over the world, without authorisation from the targeted networks.

In recent years, a number of investigations have explored the ways in which surveillance companies gain access to phone networks to enable this type of tracking. Lighthouse and its partners have previously written about how SS7 abuses were linked to the murder of a reporter in Mexico and a crackdown on an activist in Congo, and how they were enabled via leasing of Global Titles.