Inside First Wap: The Global Phone-Tracking Empire Targeting Leaders, Activists, and Ordinary People

A sweeping investigation by Lighthouse Reports and other partners reveals how Indonesian-based surveillance firm First Wap has quietly built a global phone-tracking empire using its Altamides system. By exploiting vulnerabilities in telecom signaling networks, Altamides has been used to track more than 14,000 phone numbers in over 160 countries, including world leaders, Vatican whistleblowers, journalists, human rights defenders, and everyday civilians. The reporting shows how First Wap and its resellers marketed this “despotism as a service” to authoritarian regimes and private clients alike, often skirting export controls and sanctions, and underscores the urgent need for stronger regulation of commercial surveillance tools.

Read the full story on Mother Jones.