Singapore is investigating claims that local-based mobile app, Muslim Pro, has sold "granular location data" to the US military. Clocking more than 98.5 million downloads worldwide, the popular prayer tracking app has denied the allegations, saying it shares only anonymised data with its partners.
The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) confirmed it was investing the allegations and had asked for more information from the developer of Muslim Pro, Bitsmedia. The regulator told local media: "We remind users to also be mindful of the type of permissions and personal data they provide and how it may be used. If in doubt, users should not download or use any application."
Founded in 2009, the Singapore-based Bitsmedia has offices in Malaysia and Indonesia. Its Muslim Pro app tracks prayer times and shows the direction to Mecca, amongst other features, and has been downloaded by users across 200 countries, according to its website[1].
Earlier this week, the app was reported to have sold granular location data to X-Mode, a US third-party data aggregator that sells its services to customers, which had included US defence contractors. US-Canadian news outlet Vice Media broke the news in its report[2], stating that Muslim Pro was amongst other mobile apps that had sold data to the US military and that had included timestamps, phone model details, and the name of the Wi-Fi network to which the phone was connected.
Bitsmedia has denied the allegations, publishing two statements[3] on Tuesday and Thursday and dismissing the report as "incorrect and untrue".
Noting that it was in compliance with global data privacy laws and regulations such as the EU's GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Bitsmedia said it "collect, process, and use information"