Free advertising-data samples exposed visits to German mosques, synagogues and churches

netzpolitik.org found more than one million phone-location observations at German religious sites in free samples supplied by data brokers. The records covered Christian, Jewish and Muslim institutions,

The Berlin examples include the Neue Synagoge and Neukölln’s Şehitlik Mosque. Repeated observations could connect visits to other parts of a person’s daily life. Clusters of coordinates can reveal homes and routines.

These are older datasets, including observations from 2023, rather than proof of live tracking today. The journalists also explicitly say they did not contact the individuals in this investigation. The evidence demonstrates the exposure mechanism; it does not establish that every inferred visitor was identified correctly or subsequently targeted.

The security implication is concrete: guards can protect a building while commercial data exposes people after they leave it. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency warned of increased risks of espionage, threats and physical attacks. Religious organizations called for stronger protection and an end to the trade.