Satellite internet users around the world may have been tracked through the very adverts shown on their screens, according to a Reuters investigation — and the findings have raised fresh questions in Pakistan, where Starlink’s launch is still waiting on security clearance.
The investigation centres on Discover-Tech, an Israeli advertising technology company. Researchers found it was buying up advertising shown to users of Starlink, the satellite internet service run by SpaceX — and they believe the adverts were likely being used to work out where those users were. For Pakistan, where the government is already cautious about foreign satellite internet on national-security grounds, the claims add a new complication to a launch that has already been delayed for years.
What the Reuters investigation found
Reuters reported on 27 October 2026, citing six people familiar with the matter, that Discover-Tech was one of the biggest sources of digital adverts shown to people using Starlink. Researchers at TrendAI, the research arm of the cybersecurity company Trend Micro, found the firm was the number-one bidder for advertising aimed at Starlink users in 105 countries — including several countries where Starlink itself is banned or restricted.
The pattern was striking. TrendAI’s report, published on 15 October under the title “Invasive Ads: The Unconventional Cyber Surveillance Attack Surface”, gave the mystery buyer the codename SHADOW-EARTH-79. It found the buyer won about 13 per cent of the advertising auctions it entered on Starlink traffic, against a share of just 2.6 per cent across ordinary internet traffic — roughly five times its normal level. TrendAI concluded, with moderate-to-high confidence, that the activity looked like targeting and tracking infrastructure rather than a normal commercial advertising operation.
The researchers believed the adverts were likely being used to geolocate or otherwise watch the people who saw them. That matters because Starlink has become a vital communication tool in war zones and in countries where internet access is restricted, where users may have good reason not to be found. Neither SpaceX nor Discover-Tech answered Reuters’ requests for comment.
The spyware connection
The story does not end with advertising data. On the same day TrendAI published its report, Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and the advertising security firm Confiant said Discover-Tech’s advertising system had been used to deliver Candiru spyware — software that can infect a device without the user clicking on anything — to at least 45 devices at the news organisation Al Jazeera.
Following those revelations, Google and Comcast removed Discover-Tech from their advertising platforms. a detailed explainer of the Reuters findings sets out how the two investigations fit together, and Security Affairs’ report on the findings covers the same bidding evidence.
Some caution is needed, however. Researchers have not publicly confirmed that any individual Starlink user’s location was tracked, or that spyware reached a device through an advert shown on Starlink. The surveillance purpose is what the researchers believe the pattern points to — an allegation, not a proven fact. The identification of the firm as Discover-Tech also rests on six unnamed sources, and TrendAI’s own report never named the company. What is documented is the bidding pattern itself: one buyer, far more interested in Starlink users than in anyone else, across more than a hundred countries.
What it means for Pakistan
In Pakistan, the story has already been picked up as a possible explanation for Starlink’s long wait. A tech analyst quoted on 8 November suggested the targeting could be a major reason Starlink has not yet launched in the country. But the same report is clear that no direct link has been established between Discover-Tech and Starlink’s launch status in Pakistan — and the documented reasons for the delay are regulatory, not commercial.
Six satellite internet companies have now registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan: Aether One, Flanavotics, Galaxy Space and SpaceP, along with Starlink and SpaceCell Pakistan. But the SECP has clarified that company registration does not allow a business to offer satellite internet services. Approvals are stalled while the Ministry of Interior completes security checks, and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority will only issue licences once those checks are done and the companies hold a no-objection certificate from the Pakistan Space Activities Regulatory Board.
Starlink itself registered locally as Starlink Internet Services Pakistan (Private) Limited and holds provisional PSARB registration from March 2025, but its full registration is still incomplete. Starlink’s own availability map lists Pakistan as “pending regulatory approval”. In other words, the launch is waiting on paperwork and security clearance — and in that context, a firm with alleged surveillance capabilities sitting at the centre of Starlink’s advertising is the kind of detail regulators will notice.
Where the launch stands
For now, there is no launch date for Starlink in Pakistan: no commercial service, no orders and no coverage. Anyone waiting for the service should watch the PTA and the PSARB rather than rumours, because the next step is a regulatory decision, not a product announcement.
Two things are worth keeping separate. The Reuters findings are about advertising data and what it may reveal about users — not about Starlink’s satellites being hacked. And the Pakistan question remains, for the moment, a regulatory one: security clearances, a PSARB certificate and a PTA licence. The surveillance claims do not change that process, but they may make the scrutiny around it sharper — and for the millions of Pakistanis waiting for faster internet in areas the fibre network does not reach, that scrutiny is now part of the wait.
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