Gabriel Geiger

The surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you Inside the hidden world of First Wap, whose untraceable tech has targeted politicians, journalists, celebrities, and activists around the globe.

Unveiling the murky underbelly of the surveillance industry through the lens of First Wap, this investigation critiques how the company navigates regulatory frameworks to sell powerful surveillance tools.

By @gabrielgeiger.bsky.social, @lighthousereports.com in @motherjones.com

"The archive contained more than a million tracking operations: efforts to grab real-time locations of thousands of people worldwide. What emerged is one of the most complete pictures to date of the modern surveillance industry."

Thanks Suresh!

You all did an epic job putting it together

What I’ve been working on… Incredible reporting from @gabrielgeiger.bsky.social and @cr0ft0n.bsky.social at @lighthousereports.com Then, Michael Montgomery @revealnews.org made it into a radio story that I was lucky enough to edit. What a partnership. 14 newsrooms. 😮

Incredible to work with the @revealnews.org team on this one, including Michael Montgomery , @luolkowski.bsky.social and @artiscuriskis.bsky.social

You’ll also hear how First Wap’s executives tracked their own decides as they crisscrossed the globe on an authoritarian sales tour. @rondeibert.bsky.social of @citizenlab.ca describes this as “despotism as a service.”

Hear from a journalist surveilled while investigating the Vatican, a woman tracked by her stalker, and the daughter of a Rwandan opposition leader targeted in the lead up to his murder.

A young reporter discovers a mysterious trove of data that exposes a global surveillance empire. In a major investigation, a young reporter uncovers a powerful technology used to spy on thousands of people across the world.

We made more than 100 cold calls. Each one began the same way: “You’ve been targeted by government-grade surveillance tech.” In our @lighthousereports.com collab with @revealnews.org, you can hear the voices on the other end. revealnews.org/podcast/cell...

YouTube video by DER STANDARD Die Firma, die dich überall finden kann

Politiker, Journalist:innen, Dissidenten, aber auch Private wurden jahrelange überwacht - ohne deren Wissen. Die #SurveillanceSecrets Recherchen zeigen den bisher wohl größten bekannten Datensatz aus der Überwachungsbranche - mit vielen Verbindungen nach AT... 1/3

youtu.be/U6vIlLueOPU

🧵What’s the biggest lie the surveillance industry tells? That they only sell to legal clients. That there are red lines. But what do these companies say when they think nobody is watching? We went undercover to find out

Muito obrigado! Moro no Brasil :). Eu conheço o caso, e muito interestante. Tenho vontade de pesquisar mais sobre ele. Acho que há muita coisa interessante ali.

Just dm’d you

People often ask what it's like behind the scenes at the world's top spy tech trade fair, ISS World. Turns out it's like this bsky.app/profile/ligh...

Done

Big fan of your work @crimew.gay

Thanks so much Ryan!

EXCLUSIVE: This tech has been used to track heads of state, journalists, and maybe even you.

@lighthousereports.com uncovered a vast surveillance empire whose untraceable tech has been used to target people in more than 100 countries.

It has operated under the radar for decades. Until now.

Thanks so much Dhruv, learned a lot of this stuff from you!

YouTube video by Mother Jones This Secret Tech Tracked World Leaders, a Vatican Enemy, and Maybe You

Come for the incredible reporting, stay for the “I think I felt like shitting my pants or something”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfWy...

The surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you Inside the hidden world of First Wap, whose untraceable tech has targeted politicians, journalists, celebrities, and activists around the globe.

Legendary work from @gabrielgeiger.bsky.social.

He and a team uncovered a trove of data from a surveillance firm — location data from thousands of phone numbers from nearly every country on Earth.

The firm had been tracking everyone from Erik Prince to journalists to Jared Leto.

The surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you We uncovered a massive data trove. It revealed the hidden world of First Wap, whose untraceable tech has targeted politicians, journalists, celebrities, and activists around the globe.

The surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

A stunning investigation by @lighthousereports.com of what I call "despotism as a service"👇

And of course thanks for the countless hours from my @lighthousereports.com colleagues @cr0ft0n.bsky.social @daniel-howden.bsky.social @emmanfre.bsky.social @orariccardo.bsky.social

Have been having a blast working closely with
@revealnews.org @motherjones.com @danielschulman.bsky.social Michael Montgomery @luolkowski.bsky.social

Pleasure working with @papertrailmedia.de @bastianobermayer.bsky.social, @vonelisa.bsky.social @rettermaria.bsky.social @hmnzngr.bsky.social @leahruschka.bsky.social @christobuschek.net

Thank you!!

The surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you We uncovered a massive data trove. It revealed the hidden world of First Wap, whose untraceable tech has targeted politicians, journalists, celebrities, and activists around the globe.

EXCLUSIVE: Our friends at @lighthousereports.com obtained a secret data trove.

It revealed a vast global surveillance empire whose tech has been used to target politicians, journalists, tech execs, and Jared Leto.

The story only gets wilder from there.

Surveillance Secrets Trove of surveillance data challenges what we thought we knew about location tracking tools, who they target and how far they have spread

Se mesi fa su Google cercavi First Wap, azienda che fa prodotti di sorveglianza da circa 20 anni, trovavi poco—negli ultimi giorni nulla. Oggi con @lighthousereports.com @papertrailmedia.de @irpimedia.eu
e altri partner riveliamo tutto #SurveillanceSecrets www.lighthousereports.com/investigatio...

Very happy to be bringing this story to @revealnews.org this weekend.

How First Wap Tracks Phones Around the World From telecom protocols to a 1.5 million row dataset, here’s how we uncovered the reach and tactics of a mercenary phone-tracking company

If you want to read about how we analyzed 1.5 million rows of tracking data, we’ve written a methodology here. www.lighthousereports.com/methodology/...