It's not always, but Israel is uniquely positioned for tech companies of this kind thanks to Unit 8200.
Israel has mandatory military service. They grab the most promising teenagers and give them insanely good cybersecurity training on the government's dime. They do their mandatory service, maybe spend a few more years in the unit, then move on to the private sector. Most, if not all, of Israel's tech companies in the cybersecurity/surveillance sector are related to Unit 8200 for this reason.
But also: I think it's fair to say that Israeli spyware gets more media attention party because of geopolitical factors. Similar to Russian or Chinese spyware. I doubt the same headline would catch as much attention if you swapped Israeli-founded with Spanish-founded.
Not sure, but they are really important in the Ads scene (yeah those ads). You got Ironsource and Applovin, both from IL. I think they are pretty talented in these things.
Ex Mossad, Shin Bet and Aman guys going into the private sector. In other countries, intelligence services people usually stay around for the long run. In Israel, most do it for a few years before moving to the private sector, and taking those talents with them. It's also the case with Russia and China - there's just more money for these guys in the private sector, while national service ensures they don't get treated any more exceptionally and obtain very little benefit for staying on.
you know what they said about Prussia, it's a military that happens to have a country attached to it, Israel is sort of like that but with an internet connection
Middle easterners probably want to know. I'm sure you can appreciate how that's relevant to their politics [1]. Would you have preferred the author had decided for his readers what information they should be interested in?
> It's literally their own governments who buy the software to spy on them.
I couldn't find any source on who paid Samsung to preinstall this software - Samsung is very tight-lipped about it. I'd be very interested if you have one.
The company that has the most reach in mobile spyware is AppsFlyer which is Israeli owned and as yet a private company.
They operate in a closed space called mobile attribution of which only a few companies are competitors. Appsflyer is by far the largest. https://appgoblin.info/companies/types/ad-attribution
They are probably in 20 or more apps on your phone. https://appgoblin.com/companies/appsflyer.com
Every app uses Appsflyer. I worked for multiple companies and somehow they all use it. Kinda the standard in the industry.
Better drop back to a dumb phone TBH.
No phone is dumb internally anymore. Only the UI may make it look like a dumb phone.
A more recent article was discussed here:
Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44334167 - June 2025 (480 comments)
Israeli-founded very much buries the lede of US owned (ironSource/Unity).
I figure Samsung too is fully on the do-not-use list now after all.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250920032034/https://smex.org/...
Anyone know why it's always Israel with the mobile spyware?
It's not always, but Israel is uniquely positioned for tech companies of this kind thanks to Unit 8200.
Israel has mandatory military service. They grab the most promising teenagers and give them insanely good cybersecurity training on the government's dime. They do their mandatory service, maybe spend a few more years in the unit, then move on to the private sector. Most, if not all, of Israel's tech companies in the cybersecurity/surveillance sector are related to Unit 8200 for this reason.
But also: I think it's fair to say that Israeli spyware gets more media attention party because of geopolitical factors. Similar to Russian or Chinese spyware. I doubt the same headline would catch as much attention if you swapped Israeli-founded with Spanish-founded.
NSO group are a particularly successful Israeli spyware company, but there are others. For example Pars is Turkish.
Not sure, but they are really important in the Ads scene (yeah those ads). You got Ironsource and Applovin, both from IL. I think they are pretty talented in these things.
It's not just Israel. It's just not newsworthy if it's not Israel.
Somehow "invasive Mountain View bloatware is harvesting data from Samsung users in the US" doesn't get the same attention.
It certainly has a valence if you're in Gaza, etc., and this software is typically found in phones in the region.
I routinely see posts of various shitfuckeries in the home page of hn, mostly from big tech or other companies
Which EU countries are comparable in militarized mobile spyware?
Ex Mossad, Shin Bet and Aman guys going into the private sector. In other countries, intelligence services people usually stay around for the long run. In Israel, most do it for a few years before moving to the private sector, and taking those talents with them. It's also the case with Russia and China - there's just more money for these guys in the private sector, while national service ensures they don't get treated any more exceptionally and obtain very little benefit for staying on.
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you know what they said about Prussia, it's a military that happens to have a country attached to it, Israel is sort of like that but with an internet connection
This is from February
And the "Israeli founded" serves what purpose?
Middle easterners probably want to know. I'm sure you can appreciate how that's relevant to their politics [1]. Would you have preferred the author had decided for his readers what information they should be interested in?
[1] Iranian state media warns Israel using cell phone tracking to assassinate leaders in Iran - report - https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-85806...
> Would you have preferred the author had decided for his readers what information they should be interested in?
I don't understand the implication here, but yes?
Broader point, nationalistic click/flamebait shouldn't be on HN.
It's literally their own governments who buy the software to spy on them.
In the Islamic world, governments privately have relations with Israel and publicly condemn them to keep the populace distracted.
Apart from Iran, who of course are straight up hostile to most everyone except Russia.
> It's literally their own governments who buy the software to spy on them.
I couldn't find any source on who paid Samsung to preinstall this software - Samsung is very tight-lipped about it. I'd be very interested if you have one.
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> And the "Israeli founded" serves what purpose?
Stir up hate. Feed into conspiracy theories. Click bait. Etc...
Yes my question was rhetorical, you can see how such suggestions get treated.
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If you read that back to yourself, you'll understand (I hope) your logical failure and pitiful whataboutism.
My condolences regarding your predicament.