Overview
- An investigative consortium analyzed about 278 million Belgian location records linked to roughly 2.6 million mobile advertising IDs.
- Thousands of points appeared inside sensitive buildings, including around 2,000 at the Berlaymont, about 5,800 at the European Parliament, and roughly 9,600 at NATO headquarters.
- The European Commission said it is concerned and issued new guidance on advertising tracking for staff devices while alerting national cybersecurity bodies and other EU institutions.
- NATO acknowledged risks from third-party data collection and asked reporters not to publish details that could identify staff or link phones to alliance sites.
- The data originates from consumer apps and is traded by adtech brokers and marketplaces, with authorities citing GDPR conflicts, limited enforcement capacity, and renewed calls for tighter rules or bans.