

Exposing a Global Surveillance Empire
4 snips Oct 18, 2025
Gabriel Geiger, an investigative journalist from Lighthouse Reports, shares his groundbreaking investigation into the global surveillance industry. He reveals how he uncovered an unsecured dataset exposing over a million tracking operations. The discussion dives into the capabilities of Altimedes software used to monitor both public figures and ordinary citizens, like Sophia, who experienced undetected surveillance. Geiger recounts an undercover operation at ISS World, where they confronted a surveillance firm about tracking activists, highlighting chilling implications of their practices.
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Massive Global Tracking Exposed
- Lighthouse Reports uncovered a dataset with 700,000 tracked phone points across 160 countries showing widespread covert tracking.
- The data revealed Altimedes could pinpoint global phone locations without installing spyware on devices.
Discovery On The Deep Web
- Gabriel Geiger found the unsecured FirstWap dataset on the deep web and identified a tracked Italian journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi.
- He spent the night downloading a million-and-a-half-row file that launched the investigation.
Network-Level Tracking, Not Device Hacks
- Altimedes exploits telecom signaling to track phones and can intercept calls, texts, and encrypted app authentication.
- It achieves this without installing code on target devices, making detection harder than device spyware.