Android users' location tracked by 'snooping beacon' technology in apps - despite it being banned by Google

Hundreds of Android apps sent user location data to a data broker that had been banned from the Google Play Store since December 2020. Close to 200 messaging apps, video and file converters, dating sites, and religious and prayer apps downloaded tens of millions of times had X-Mode installed. Despite the ban, only ten per cent of these apps have been removed from Google Play. The tracker caused controversy after Vice's Motherboard reported that the United States military was buying the granular movement data of users of a a Muslim prayer and Quran app that had more than 98 million downloads worldwide. The US military has reportedly used location data to target drone strikes.