For those who don't know what is the app, Muslim Pro is a prayer app that sends daily reminders about praying and readings from the Quran. Dubbed as the "most popular" Muslim app ever with over 98 million downloads, it looks like they got themselves in hot water right now as it was reported that they have been selling users' data and location to the US military.
Muslim Pro is also accused of selling the data to third-party brokers which the US military also bought according to Vice's Motherboard news column. Moreover, the column further stated that one of the third-party brokers known as X-Mode is the one responsible for selling the data to the US military and defence contractors. X-Mode's reply to the Motherboard that their business focus based on three areas - counter-terrorism, cybersecurity and predicting future COVID-19 hotspots.
According to sources, the US military has spent $90,656 on location data mines from Babel Street in April. Similarly to X-Mode's defence, US Special Operations Command spokesman, Tim Hawkins told Business Insider that their actions were "to support Special Operations Forces mission requirements overseas". Despite this, he also added that the group still "strictly adhere to established procedures and policies for protecting the privacy, civil liberties, constitutional and legal rights of American citizens".
Nobody likes their data being leaked or sold to third-party groups and it definitely violates human's rights and privacy. Although location data firms and partners say that the identities are anonymous in the data, it's still possible to track the person down with some decryption. Either way, never put too much information on your social account - the world doesn't need to know. Stay safe and stay tuned for more trending tech news at TechNave.com.
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