Austrian Interior Ministry Using Cobwebs Surveillance Software
Citizen Lab research fellow Wolfie Christl spoke with Der Standard about the Austrian Interior Ministry’s €900K investment in Tangles, a surveillance software that gathers and analyzes data from across social media and the web. Christl and a Citizen Lab colleague discovered that the tool was purchased by the Austrian ministry last summer.
Experts are concerned about the Ministry’s refusal to explain what the tool will be used for and the extent of its surveillance capabilities. Austrian authorities have not made it clear if they have also bought WebLoc, an additional feature that allows clients to track the movement of mobile devices within a designated area. Both Tangles and WebLoc, developed by Israeli firm Cobwebs and sold by the U.S.-based vendor Penlink, are used by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE).
Christl warns that this highly intrusive tool could enable uncontrolled mass surveillance based on the personal data of millions of people in Austria.
“It is extremely concerning from a democratic perspective that the Interior Ministry refuses to answer…whether or not the police or intelligence services are misusing problematic or even unlawfully collected behavioural data from digital advertising for surveillance purposes,” Christl says.
(Quotes translated from German)
