{"id":1789702,"date":"2020-11-25T19:45:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-26T00:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1789702"},"modified":"2020-11-25T19:45:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T00:45:00","slug":"how-the-u-s-military-buys-location-data-from-mobile-apps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/11\/how-the-u-s-military-buys-location-data-from-mobile-apps\/","title":{"rendered":"How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Mobile Apps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/jgqm5x\/us-military-location-data-xmode-locate-x\"><em>Motherboard<\/em> reported last week<\/a> that the U.S. military was buying location data that originated, among other places, from Muslim prayer and dating apps. The <em>Motherboard<\/em> expos\u00e9 details how it happened: how the location data supply chain works, and, for example, how data brokers pay app developers to incorporate their frameworks into apps so that user data can be harvested and sold to buyers like law enforcement and military contractors. Developers may not necessarily be aware of what they\u2019re agreeing to when they accept those frameworks, but they don\u2019t have to embed data harvesting algorithms in their apps either. [<a href=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/linked\/2020\/11\/19\/cox-location-data\">Daring Fireball<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/189440\/How-the-US-Military-Buys-Location-Data-from-Ordinary-Apps\">MetaFilter<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Previously: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/12\/new-york-times-how-location-data-is-gathered-shared-and-sold\/\">New York Times: How Location Data Is Gathered, Shared and Sold<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Motherboard reported last week that the U.S. military was buying location data that originated, among other places, from Muslim prayer and dating apps. The Motherboard expos\u00e9 details how it happened: how the location data supply&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/11\/how-the-u-s-military-buys-location-data-from-mobile-apps\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[420,1316,646],"class_list":["post-1789702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-mobile","tag-geolocation","tag-location-services","tag-privacy","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1789833,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/12\/apple-and-google-ban-location-tracking-sdk-from-apps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1789702,"position":0},"title":"Apple and Google Ban Location Tracking SDK from Apps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"22 December 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Last month it was reported that the X-Mode software development kit, used by many apps, was collecting and selling user location data, with the U.S. military among the buyers. In response, earlier this month both Apple and Google gave developers a deadline to remove X-Mode from their apps: seven days\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mobile&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1785901,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/07\/polar-flow-user-data-can-be-used-to-identify-military-and-intelligence-personnel\/","url_meta":{"origin":1789702,"position":1},"title":"Polar Flow User Data Can Be Used to Identify Military and Intelligence Personnel","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"9 July 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Remember how in January the mobile fitness app Strava was found to reveal the training routes and user data of military and security personnel? It wasn't just Strava. A joint investigation by Bellingcat and De Correspondent found that the data for users of the Polar Flow app is even more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;GPS&quot;","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/polar-flow-icon-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1786825,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/12\/new-york-times-how-location-data-is-gathered-shared-and-sold\/","url_meta":{"origin":1789702,"position":2},"title":"New York Times: How Location Data Is Gathered, Shared and Sold","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"13 December 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"A long expos\u00e9 from the New York Times explores just how much location data is collected from mobile apps, to the point where the identity of an anonymous user can be reconstructed from where they've been. The key point: whatever purpose the app is collecting your location for (for example,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mobile&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1786138,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/08\/ap-google-tracks-your-location-even-when-you-tell-it-not-to\/","url_meta":{"origin":1789702,"position":3},"title":"AP: Google Tracks Your Location, Even When You Tell It Not To","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"15 August 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"\"Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to,\" the Associated Press reports. Their exclusive investigation discovered that \"many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you\u2019ve used a privacy setting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mobile&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1786078,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/08\/pentagon-tells-personnel-to-turn-off-geolocation-in-sensitive-areas\/","url_meta":{"origin":1789702,"position":4},"title":"Pentagon Tells Personnel to Turn Off Geolocation in Sensitive Areas","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"7 August 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"In the wake of reports that fitness apps' user data was exposed and could be used to identify military and intelligence personnel in sensitive areas like bases and deployment zones, U.S. military and defense employees can no longer use geolocation features in devices and apps in operational areas.\u00a0The new policy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;GPS&quot;","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1784887,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/01\/non-anonymized-strava-user-data-is-accessible\/","url_meta":{"origin":1789702,"position":5},"title":"Non-Anonymized Strava User Data Is Accessible","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"30 January 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"More on the privacy issues regarding Strava's global heat map and its customer data. Now Wired UK is reporting that Strava's data isn't anonymous. Because you can compare your results with nearby users, all it takes is a local GPS tracklog\u2014which can be created out of whole cloth, as Steve\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;GPS&quot;","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1789702"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1789706,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789702\/revisions\/1789706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1789702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1789702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1789702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}