How This Briefing Works
This dossier opens with key findings, then maps the gap between what Vector discloses and what BLACKOUT observed at runtime. From there: what it means for your organization, what to do about it, and the detection evidence underneath. BLACKOUT observes runtime browser behavior and cites the regulations that address each pattern — legal determinations are your counsel's call.
At a Glance
across 34 sites
vendor fires before consent
1 CRIT · 2 HIGH
Briefing
Vector is a Y Combinator-backed B2B "contact-level advertising" platform that de-anonymizes website visitors and matches them to verified contacts for targeted advertising across LinkedIn, Google, and Meta. Despite claiming GDPR/CCPA compliance, runtime analysis shows 62.3% of Vector deployments fire before consent. The platform uses a multi-step "identity waterfall" including IP enrichment via undisclosed third-party pro.ip-api.com. A Q4 2025 penetration test by Oneleet revealed critical vulnerabilities including mass assignment flaws allowing cross-customer data exposure. Vector operates 21 third-party tracking vendors on their own website pre-consent while only disclosing three.
What This Means For You
YOUR website visitors are being identified and matched to contact records before consent is collected. YOUR demand signals — which pages prospects visit, how long they stay, what they research — flow to Vector's advertising platform where competitors can target those same contacts on LinkedIn and Google. If you deploy Vector, YOUR privacy policy likely fails to account for 21 undisclosed third-party vendors operating on your properties. Under GDPR Article 30, YOUR records of processing are incomplete, exposing you to regulatory action.
Risk Channel Breakdown
Vector corrupts attribution by inserting itself into the measurement chain. Their contact-level targeting creates attribution loops where Vector-identified contacts are served ads, then Vector claims conversion credit. This pollutes marketing analytics with circular attribution that cannot be independently verified.
Vector explicitly collects demand signals (which contacts are visiting which pages) and uses them for competitive advertising. When a prospect visits your site, Vector can identify them and help competitors target them. Their 'identity waterfall' creates a shared pool of visitor intelligence that benefits all Vector customers, including your competitors.
The Q4 2025 Oneleet pentest revealed critical security vulnerabilities: mass assignment allowing cross-customer webhook hijacking (VCTR-001), subscription bypass (VCTR-002), and exposed API keys (VCTR-003). Their pixel shares visitor IP addresses with third-party ip-api.com without disclosure. The 5,413-line pixel.js introduces significant attack surface to any site deploying it.
Vector claims GDPR and CCPA compliance while exhibiting 62.3% pre-consent tracking. They claim to be 'SOC2 ready' but have not completed audit. Their privacy policy mentions only 3 vendors while they deploy 21 pre-consent on their own site. The identity waterfall performs aggressive visitor identification that likely requires explicit consent under GDPR Article 6.
Threat Indicators
Runtime-observed (BTI-C)
Evasion infrastructure, auditor bypass
Keystroke/mouse tracking
Full session replay
Identity stitching
Ignoring CMP signals
PII deanonymization
Container/loader (neutral)
Claims-vs-Reality (BTI-X)
Not in privacy policy
Hidden data recipients
False certification claims
Collection exceeds disclosed scope
Per-code narrative explanations of what each detected behavior means for your organization
Per-code evidence with full attribution chain, severity rankings, and consequence narratives See pricing →
Claims vs. Reality
BLACKOUT analyzed Vector's public claims against observed runtime behavior and identified 4 contradictions.
"GDPR compliant, CCPA compliant"
62.3% pre-consent tracking rate across 34 monitored sites
3 more gaps — with regulatory citations and evidence pointers — available with subscription.
Full claim-vs-reality gap analysis with claim text, observed behavior, severity, regulatory citations (GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy), and evidence pointers per gap See pricing →
What To Do
4 for current users · 4 for evaluators
contractual leverage points
Role-specific actions (security / legal / marketing / procurement), full negotiation brief with contractual language, and BTI-code-specific consequences See pricing →
Supply Chain & Pairings
Claims 5, observed 6
googletagmanager, googleanalytics4, idvisitors…
Full supply-chain mapping (loads / loaded-by lists with vendor identities) and the undisclosed-subprocessor list with observation evidence See pricing →