Hungary Deploys Israeli Webloc Surveillance Tool, Violating EU Privacy Regulations

Intelligence agencies under Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán have been secretly deploying “Webloc,” an advanced Israeli mass surveillance tool that tracks hundreds of millions of people using smartphone advertising data, according to a joint investigation published by VSquare and Citizen Lab on April 9.

The deployment makes Hungary the first confirmed European Union country to use the highly intrusive technology, a move that researchers say is a blatant violation of the bloc’s strict GDPR  privacy regulations. According to the investigation, Webloc uses a process known as “geofencing” to gather and analyze location data collected by everyday smartphone applications for advertising purposes, fusing it with unique device identifiers to track individuals physically.

Documents reveal that Hungary’s Special Service for National Security (NBSZ) quietly renewed its licenses for Webloc and a suite of other AI-powered intelligence tools from Israel’s Cobwebs Technologies in March 2026, weeks before the country’s highly contested April 12 parliamentary elections.

The covert procurements were routed through SCI-Network Ltd., a Hungarian broker company led by a former counterintelligence colonel with deep ties to Antal Rogán, the influential head of Orbán’s Cabinet Office. Sources told VSquare that the broker marked up the cost of the Israeli licenses by as much as 300%.

The state’s reliance on Cobwebs followed the multi-million-euro failure of a “homegrown” OSINT system called Quvasz, which proved technically inferior and unusable by Hungarian intelligence officers.

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Furthermore, the investigation uncovered that SCI-Network Ltd. is linked to the development of a mysterious new mobile spyware. Dubbed by insiders as the “successor to Pegasus,” this unnamed tool is allegedly capable of highly sophisticated “zero-click” attacks—meaning a target’s phone can be completely compromised without the user ever clicking a link.

While sources noted the spyware suffers from battery-draining issues and leaves detectable traces, its deployment signals a massive, continued investment in covert surveillance tools by the Hungarian state.

The exposure of the Webloc system adds another chapter to Hungary’s extensive and controversial history with surveillance and intelligence leaks. Over the past few years, Viktor Orbán’s government has repeatedly been at the center of international scandals involving covert operations and intelligence sharing.

As EU leaders actively restrict the flow of classified information to Budapest due to suspected leaks to the Kremlin, the deployment of Israeli tracking tools reinforces fears that the Hungarian state apparatus is systematically weaponizing intelligence. With a crucial parliamentary election looming and evidence of coordinated Russian meddling already surfacing, the use of mass surveillance software raises severe concerns about the integrity of the vote and the safety of political dissidents within the EU.

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