A Muslim prayer app with over 98 million downloads is one of the apps connected to a wide-ranging supply chain that sends ordinary people's personal data to brokers, contractors, and the military.

Through public records, interviews with developers, and technical analysis, Motherboard uncovered two separate, parallel data streams that the U.S. military uses, or has used, to obtain location data. One relies on a company called Babel Street, which creates a product called Locate X. U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), a branch of the military tasked with counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and special reconnaissance, bought access to Locate X to assist on overseas special forces operations. The other stream is through a company called X-Mode, which obtains location data directly from apps, then sells that data to contractors, and by extension, the military.

  • brombek
    2·
    4 years ago

    Better install whose prayer apps if you don’t want to accidentally get hit with a drone attack :/

    • AxaoeOP
      1·
      4 years ago

      Ah my bad there, I didn’t get/see those (reader mode) - I’ll source different links next time/when possible.

      Thanks for the extra info, wonder what they’ll rebrand themselves as after this?

        • AxaoeOP
          1·
          4 years ago

          I wonder if something like this could be added to an Exodus Privacy-type app, scanning for trackers but also providing details over the SDK used?

          You’re right about attention spans, there’s so much going on and keeping track of it all is impossible.