Counterintelligence for civil society

Investigating novel threats to democracy, human rights, and global security in the digital ecosystem.

Tall Tales

How Chinese Actors Use Impersonation and Stolen Narratives to Perpetuate Digital Transnational Repression

Digital Transnational RepressionTargeted Surveillance

In collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), we identified two distinct actors aligned with the People’s Republic of China that have been targeting and impersonating journalists and civil society. Our findings provide insight into the Chinese government’s practice of digital transnational repression and its shift to a system of state-sponsored attacks carried out by private contractors.

April 27, 2026

Bad Connection

Uncovering Global Telecom Exploitation by Covert Surveillance Actors

Targeted Surveillance

Our investigation uncovers two sophisticated telecom surveillance campaigns and, for the first time, links real-world attack traffic to mobile operator signalling infrastructure. The findings expose how suspected commercial surveillance vendors (CSVs) exploit the global telecom interconnect ecosystem, leverage private operator networks, and conduct covert location tracking operations that can persist undetected for years.

April 23, 2026

Uncovering Webloc

An Analysis of Penlink’s Ad-based Geolocation Surveillance Tech

Mass SurveillanceTargeted Surveillance

Location data collected from mobile apps and digital advertising can reveal habits, interests and almost any other aspect of someone’s life. In this report, we uncover how a geolocation surveillance system called Webloc uses ad-based data to monitor hundreds of millions of people across the globe.

April 9, 2026

Counterintelligence for civil society

Investigating novel threats to democracy, human rights, and global security in the digital ecosystem.

Counterintelligence for civil society

Investigating novel threats to democracy, human rights, and global security in the digital ecosystem.

Tall Tales

How Chinese Actors Use Impersonation and Stolen Narratives to Perpetuate Digital Transnational Repression

Digital Transnational RepressionTargeted Surveillance

In collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), we identified two distinct actors aligned with the People’s Republic of China that have been targeting and impersonating journalists and civil society. Our findings provide insight into the Chinese government’s practice of digital transnational repression and its shift to a system of state-sponsored attacks carried out by private contractors.

April 27, 2026

Read the full report

Bad Connection

Uncovering Global Telecom Exploitation by Covert Surveillance Actors

Targeted Surveillance

Our investigation uncovers two sophisticated telecom surveillance campaigns and, for the first time, links real-world attack traffic to mobile operator signalling infrastructure. The findings expose how suspected commercial surveillance vendors (CSVs) exploit the global telecom interconnect ecosystem, leverage private operator networks, and conduct covert location tracking operations that can persist undetected for years.

April 23, 2026

Read the full report

Uncovering Webloc

An Analysis of Penlink’s Ad-based Geolocation Surveillance Tech

Mass SurveillanceTargeted Surveillance

Location data collected from mobile apps and digital advertising can reveal habits, interests and almost any other aspect of someone’s life. In this report, we uncover how a geolocation surveillance system called Webloc uses ad-based data to monitor hundreds of millions of people across the globe.

April 9, 2026

Read the full report

The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary research unit at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. We apply our collective expertise in the fields of law, computer science, cybersecurity, political science, and social sciences to investigate complex issues of the 21st century.

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Explore focus areas

App Security & Privacy
Artificial Intelligence
Censorship
Digital Transnational Repression
Disinformation
Law & Policy
Mass Surveillance
Targeted Surveillance

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