Dating, weather, and other apps monitor users’ location and send it to military contractors, report claims

Get Nadine White's Race Report newsletter for a fresh perspective on the week's news Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A group of apps, including a Muslim prayer and Quran app, a Muslim dating app, an app for tracking storms, and more have been used to collect data that has been sold to the US military contractors The data is collected through a company called X-Mode, which gets access to location data from apps and sells that data to contractors, according to a report from Motherboard. X-Mode’s SDK is currently in approximately 400 apps, including Muslim Pro, the Muslim Mingle dating app, the "Accupedo" step counter app, the “CPlus for Craigslist" app, “Bubble level”, a spirit level app, and "Global Storms," an app for tracking weather events. "I cannot be aware X-Mode is working with military contractors if they do not clearly mention it somewhere.” "As an app developer I do care with whom I'm contracting with," Antoine Vianey, the developer behind the app "Bubble level", but added that he was not aware that Sierra Nevada Corporation or Systems & Technology Research were partners. We will continue to take all necessary measures to ensure that our users practice their faith with peace of mind, which remains Muslim Pro’s sole mission since its creation.” Some apps’ privacy policies, as well as X-Mode's own policy, says the company may use location data "for disease prevention and research, security, anti-crime and law enforcement."