Data shows that the kingdom's three biggest mobile phone providers sent millions of requests to a major US provider asking for information that would allow the kingdom to identify the location of Saudi-registered phones in the country.
In total, almost 2.3million requests for data were sent per month between November last year and March this year - meaning individual phones were being tracked up to 13 times per hour.
A whistleblower told The Guardian that the data shows Saudi Arabia is 'weaponising' mobile networks to run surveillance on its citizens abroad.
'There is no other explanation, no other technical reason to do this,' they said.
The apparent spying operation works by exploiting a system called SS7, which is used to connect mobile users calling or messaging from different countries.
Mobile phone companies can legitimately request information on users through the SS7 system including location data, which is used to register roaming charges.
But the new data suggests that Saudi Arabia is using its three biggest providers - Saudi Telecom, Mobily and Zain - to send millions of spurious requests.
Data on individual phones was being requested up to 13 per hour, the Guardian reported, which would allow anyone looking at it to build up an accurate picture of the owner's movements.
There is no evidence that the Saudi mobile companies, which did not respond to requests for comment, knew their networks were being used in this way.
Saudi embassies in the US and UK also did not respond to requests for comment.
While the data did not reveal the identities of the phone owners who were being tracked, Saudi Arabia is known to keep a close eye on regime critics living overseas. // <\/s'+'cript>'); // --> //]]> From ICE
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