An Israeli ad-tech company, Discover-Tech, is facing scrutiny after researchers found its advertising bidder unusually dominant in auctions for ads shown to Starlink users across more than 100 countries, including some where satellite internet is restricted.
TrendAI’s October 15 report tracked the bidder as SHADOW-EARTH-79. The bidder was later identified as Discover-Tech in a Reuters report published October 27.
TrendAI said SHADOW-EARTH-79 was the top winning bidder for Starlink ad impressions in 105 countries. It accounted for about 12.9% of the Starlink ads in the analyzed data, nearly five times its 2.6% baseline share. The researchers said the pattern suggested tracking and targeting rather than ordinary advertising, while noting that their findings were based on one advertising platform’s telemetry and that IP geolocation can be imprecise. The bidding data does not establish that individual subscribers were identified or followed. TrendAI’s report describes the methodology and findings.
Real-time advertising auctions can share information such as IP addresses, location estimates, device details and advertising identifiers with bidders. Combining those signals may allow an operator to build profiles or infer movement. The concern is especially serious for Starlink users in conflict zones or places where satellite internet is restricted. The findings do not indicate that Starlink’s satellites or core network were breached.
The Starlink research emerged alongside a separate investigation into Discover-Tech’s advertising infrastructure. Citizen Lab linked Discover-Tech ads to Candiru spyware attacks that targeted at least 45 devices at Al Jazeera in 2024 and 2025. The researchers described the campaign as a zero-click attack, in which malicious code could be delivered when an advertisement rendered. Google and IAB Europe removed Discover-Tech from their ad-vendor registries in early October, while several advertising platforms restricted or suspended its access. Abijita previously reported on the zero-click spyware campaign against Al Jazeera.
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Discover-Tech Suspected of Tracking Starlink Users Through Ads
