Interior Ministry extends surveillance software license by two years

Austria's Interior Ministry has reportedly renewed its contract for the surveillance software "Tangles" for another two years, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from the Green Party. The extended contract allegedly includes the controversial "Webloc" module, which can access users' location data. The software, used by agencies like the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), analyzes online activities across the internet, social media, and the dark web.

The "Webloc" module's ability to gather location data is particularly concerning. According to Green Party spokesperson Süleyman Zorba, the software obtains this information through advertising trackers embedded in mobile applications. "Even if an investigation targets only one person, the data of thousands of uninvolved individuals are collected, linked, and evaluated," Zorba stated. He characterized this as a "structural expansion of state surveillance without effective control," rather than a targeted investigative tool.

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For months, the Interior Ministry put us off, and now we have the confirmation in black and white.

The Greens have accused the Interior Ministry, led by Minister Gerhard Karner, of a lack of transparency regarding the software's use. Zorba noted that his party was "put off for months" by the ministry before finally obtaining confirmation through an EU database entry. The ministry had previously refused to answer a parliamentary inquiry, citing "essential external and internal security interests of the Republic of Austria."

The two-year contract for "Tangles Unlimited + Webloc & Webeye" is valued at approximately 1.85 million euros. This follows a previous entry in the EU database from late 2024, which involved a smaller sum and did not specify which modules were accessible to Austrian security authorities. The software itself was developed by the Israeli firm Cobwebs, which merged with U.S. company Penlink in 2023.

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Even if an investigation targets only one person, the data of thousands of uninvolved individuals are collected, linked, and evaluated. This is no longer a targeted investigative tool, but a structural expansion of state surveillance without effective control.