{"id":96814,"date":"2026-02-21T05:14:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T08:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/894308529"},"modified":"2026-02-21T05:14:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T08:14:23","slug":"firm-selling-israels-spy-tech-woos-europes-cops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/21\/firm-selling-israels-spy-tech-woos-europes-cops\/","title":{"rendered":"Firm selling Israel’s spy tech woos Europe’s cops"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cobwebs Technologies (now owned by PenLink) has recommended that its products be used to spy on Black Lives Matter activists. <\/p>\n


\nProbal Rashid<\/span>
\nZUMA Press<\/span><\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Israel\u2019s spy technology will be displayed at an exhibition<\/a> organized by the British government next month.<\/p>\n

PenLink \u2013 one of the listed participants<\/a> in the London expo named Security and Policing \u2013 is, to put it mildly, a firm that should be shunned.<\/p>\n

Five years ago, Meta banned<\/a> Israel\u2019s Cobwebs Technologies \u2013 which PenLink has subsequently acquired<\/a> \u2013 from gathering intelligence across the corporation\u2019s platforms.<\/p>\n

Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, had found<\/a> that Cobwebs was using hundreds of social media accounts to surveil activists, civil servants and opposition politicians in Mexico and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

The details<\/a> provided about PenLink on the website for the Security and Policing exhibition are misleading. They present PenLink as a British company.<\/p>\n

PenLink is headquartered in Nebraska and has extremely strong connections to Israel.<\/p>\n

Omri Timianker, a founder<\/a> of Cobwebs, is among several Israelis on PenLink\u2019s senior management team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Timianker has in the not-too-distant past been promoted<\/a> as a veteran of the \u201cspecial forces\u201d within the Israeli military and \u201cIsrael\u2019s secret services.\u201d<\/p>\n

When speaking at conferences, he has been praised<\/a> as being a pioneer among \u201cIsrael\u2019s secret services\u201d in the use of \u201ctactical SIGINT.\u201d<\/p>\n

As signals intelligence (SIGINT) involves the interception of communications, it is really a fancy term for spying. It is highly probable that any innovation which Timianker helped to realize has been tested out on Palestinians living under an illegal occupation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In January, Timianker hosted a visit to PenLink\u2019s Israel offices by Michael Mann, the European Union\u2019s ambassador in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

By Timianker\u2019s account<\/a>, the pair chatted about \u201chow fast reality is shifting and how critical it is to equip people not just with tools but with the ability to think, question and stay aware in a world shaped by algorithms and narratives.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Delighted to meet Penlink founder @OTimianker<\/a> for a fascinating discussion about technology, disinformation and preparedness. Having worked on disinformation, it was great to see how technology and human skills are developing so fast, led by cutting-edge firms like Penlink. pic.twitter.com\/wrtcNeGqtR<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Michael Mann (@MichaelMannEU) January 9, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

From a freedom of information request, I learned that Mann had met a PenLink representative during a November event in the city of Herzliya. In follow-up email correspondence, Mann stated that he would be \u201cdelighted to arrange a visit\u201d so that he could see PenLink\u2019s offices. <\/p>\n

After I sent a query to Mann, the EU\u2019s Tel Aviv embassy described his meeting with Timianker as a \u201ccourtesy visit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The visit, according to the embassy, \u201centailed an informal conversation about technology and disinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EU, incidentally, is increasingly accusing journalists and academics with whom it disagrees of \u201cdisinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

They include the German citizen H\u00fcseyin Dogru, who is subject to EU sanctions<\/a> that imperil his livelihood for publishing articles critical of Israel and German state violence against Palestine solidarity activists on Red<\/em>, a media outlet which he set up.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmbassador Mann did not discuss concrete business opportunities for the firm in Europe or elsewhere,\u201d the embassy added.<\/p>\n

It is nonetheless indisputable that the meeting with Mann took place amid efforts by PenLink to woo<\/a> Europe\u2019s law enforcement agencies. PenLink, for example, showcased its wares at last year\u2019s Europe Police Congress in Berlin.<\/p>\n

Selling to ICE<\/h2>\n

Cobwebs \u2013 the Israeli firm now owned by PenLink \u2013 had previously sought to drum up business by illustrating<\/a> how one of its systems could be used against Black Lives Matter protesters in the US.<\/p>\n

Tangles, as the system is called, mines social media posts to find out which events targeted individuals attend and then combines that data with details leaked about those individuals online.<\/p>\n

ICE \u2013 the notoriously bellicose<\/a> US Immigration and Customs Enforcement \u2013 has spent<\/a> approximately $5 million on using Tangles, particularly a feature<\/a> named Webloc.<\/p>\n

Long before he was named the EU\u2019s ambassador to Tel Aviv, Michael Mann had developed cordial relations<\/a> with Israel and its lobbying network.<\/p>\n

Prior to taking up his current job, he was one of the leading figures dealing with the Middle East in the Brussels-based administration of the EU\u2019s diplomatic service.<\/p>\n

Another senior player in that service is H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Le Gal, a former French envoy to Israel and Morocco.<\/p>\n

Through a separate freedom of information request, I learned that Le Gal agreed to receive a delegation from the American Jewish Committee (AJC), a prominent pro-Israel group, in November. The delegation had asked for a meeting to talk about \u201cthe current situation in the Middle East, as well as Russia\u2019s ongoing war against Ukraine and its increasingly aggressive posture toward Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s ongoing war against Ukraine is undoubtedly a serious issue \u2013 as well as being a consequence of the West\u2019s aggressive posture<\/a> towards Russia (something that EU and NATO representatives would never acknowledge).<\/p>\n

Achieving a fair and sustainable resolution of that war is not, however, foremost on the AJC\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

Rather, it exploits Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine to try and distract<\/a> attention from the genocide which Israel is committing in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Lobbyists know very well, too, that the rapid growth in Western military spending prompted by the Russia-Ukraine conflict presents opportunities<\/a> to boost Israel\u2019s weapons exports.<\/p>\n

Israel and its support network thrive on war. As the EU\u2019s leading players are dedicated<\/a> to building a war economy, it is grimly logical that they are looking to Israel and its advocates for inspiration<\/a> and assistance.<\/p>\n

<\/i> Tags<\/span> <\/h3>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… Rashid ZUMA PressIsrael\u00e2\u0080\u0099s spy technology<\/span> will be displayed at an … for a fascinating discussion about technology<\/span>, disinformation and preparedness. Having worked … , \u00e2\u0080\u009centailed an informal conversation about technology<\/span> and disinformation.\u00e2\u0080\u009d The EU, incidentally …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96814\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}