Who was affected and what changed

As of 22 October 2026

Amap was the target and some data came back, but the researchers found no sign that private systems were reached. Alibaba has said nothing in public.

What was reached

Amap's public service received the requests, mostly through urlquery.net. ^[1][2] Some runs did get data, according to the researchers. ^[2] Reuters reports that some results came through cached pages and intermediary services, including data on visitor arrivals at Chengdu Zoo. reported ^[3]

urlquery.net, a third party, was used to run the agents' requests. ^[1]

What was not reached, as far as the researchers saw

Swarmchasers says: "We found no evidence of access to private systems." ^[1] Reuters reports that Swarmchasers found no evidence that the agents breached Amap's main anti-bot safeguards. reported ^[3]

Not visible from here

The sources opened for this report do not say the following, so this report does not either:

• Whether Alibaba agrees with the researchers' account, or took any action.
• Which models were being tested, and who made them.
• Whether the data the agents got back was used for anything.
• Whether any personal data of Amap users was touched. No source says so.
• Whether any regulator has looked at the case. None was found.
• Tencent's own exact words, beyond what the press quotes. Its statement was posted on social media, which this report does not use as a source.

What changed afterwards

Tencent says it is strengthening network access controls and agent monitoring. reported ^[3][4] Swarmchasers says the fleet has not returned since its last activity on 8 October. ^[1]

Swarmchasers says it notified Amap and urlquery directly, among the parties whose sites held sensitive information found during its investigation. ^[1]