This week news broke that several well-known apps are selling user data that end up in the hands of the US military. And many of the apps in the military's data-supply scheme are aimed at Muslim audiences.
According to the VICE, which spoke to developers, analysts and accessed public documents, the US military obtains location information from two data brokerage companies, Babel Street and X-Mode. A counterterrorism, counterinsurgency and reconnaissance branch of the US military bought access to Babel Street’s Locate X to help special task forces in other countries. X-Mode, in turn, buys data directly from apps and sells it to third parties who then pass the information on to the military.
Who is the target?
Apps aimed at Muslims include Muslim pro, which shows the direction of Mecca for users to pray, and has more than 98 million downloads on the Play Store, for iOS and other platforms.
Another app for Muslims mentioned is Muslim Mingle (over 100 downloads), a dating and marriage app.
In a statement to VICE, US Special Operations Command spokesperson Navy Commander Tim Hawkins said, “Our access to the software is used to support Special Forces missions in other countries. We follow established policies and procedures to protect the privacy, civil liberties, and constitutional and legal rights of American citizens.”
More Android apps selling user data to the US military: Accupedo Pedometer (5 million downloads), a walking tracking app. Screen stream mirroring (10 million downloads), real-time screen and audio mirroring app. And Global Storms (1 million downloads), weather app. Some apps state that users' location data may end up in the hands of unknown parties. Others do not mention this detail.
Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. Android Police
