Muslim Pro, an app downloaded by over 98 million Islam believers worldwide is allegedly selling private data, including the location of its users to the US military for unknown reasons.
The app that is referred to as the “Most Popular Muslim App!” on its website supposedly functions to remind its users when to pray and what direction Mecca is in relation to the user’s current location. It also includes passages and audio readings from the Quran.
According to a report from Vice, one of the app’s data buyers is from the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), an association believed to be closely connected to issues relating to anti-violence, anti-counterfeiting, and various secret activities across the globe.
The US military allegedly receives location data from the app’s users through two methods: Babel Street and X-Mode. Babel Street is a developer of Locate X products used by USSOCOM to operate anti-terrorist squads in overseas locations. Meanwhile, X-Mode buys location data directly from those involved in the app’s development and sells it to military-related contractors. Following the report from Vice, Muslim Pro mostly sells their user data to X-Mode.
X-Mode will then pay them based on how many users the app hosts everyday. To put things in perspective, if there are 50,000 active users in America, the app will make profits of about USD1,500 (RM6,160) a month!
Some app developers told Motherboard that they were not aware of who their users’ location data ends up with, and even if a user examines an app’s privacy policy, they might not realise how many different channels are buying some of their most sensitive data.
The information from the report was obtained through interviews with the public, the app’s developers, and technical analysis showing two isolated and parallel data streams used in the American military to obtain user location data.
As of now, Muslim Pro has not responded to the publication’s requests for comment. Many netizens have taken to Twitter to declare their outrage against this blatant invasion of privacy.
Be careful guys! What do you think of this?
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