(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/18/22) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today sent a letter to the U.S. House and Senate committees on judiciary, armed services, and intelligence, renewing its call for Congress to investigate the latest in a series of reports by the media that U.S. military contractors are spying on the Muslims prayer apps, including Al Moazin and Qibla Compass, which have been downloaded approximately 10 million times.
READ: CAIR’S LETTER TO THE U.S. HOUSE AND SENATE JUDICARY, ARMED SERVICES, AND INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEES
SEE: Mega-Popular Muslim Prayer Apps Were Secretly Harvesting Phone Numbers
On April 6, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled, “Google Yanks Apps With Hidden Code That Harvests Data.” According to the article, Google has blocked dozens of apps from its Play Store because they include a secret code developed by a company linked to a U.S. military that was “surreptitiously collecting data from…users.”
That hidden code allowed the military contractor to secretly collect “precise location, personal identifiers such as email and phone numbers as well as data about nearby computers and mobile devices.”
Among those apps pulled from Google Play include “numerous Muslim-themed prayer apps such as Al Moazin and Qibla Compass.”
In a statement, CAIR Director of Government Affairs Department Robert S. McCaw said:
“CAIR is urging Congress to protect American Muslims, in addition to Muslims overseas, whose Islamic prayer apps and their corresponding cellphone data continue to be spied on by multiple U.S. military contractors – and purchased by the U.S. military.
“This ongoing spying on American Muslims’ cellphone metadata and Islamic app usage is a direct attack on the First Amendment rights of our community and its consumer privacy.
“The Islamic prayer app data being secretly scooped up by U.S. military contractors and the federal government offer personal insights into how often Muslims pray, what religious verses and materials they are studying, their precise location, and whether they are in congregation with other Muslims using these apps.
“Overseas, the U.S. military and CIA could be using this metadata to target Muslims for further surveillance, drone assassination or other operations.
“Congress has to stop ignoring this issue or treating it like it is normal. This is not normal. This would not be tolerated by any religious community. Congress needs to investigate this now.”
In November 2020, CAIR called on Congress to investigate similar reports that the U.S. military purchased location and movement metadata from two popular Muslim prayer, Quran and marriage applications – “Muslim Pro” and “Muslim Mingle” – to conduct counterterrorism and intelligence gathering operations.
More than a dozen members of Congress also responded to that incident by writing a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to express their alarm about “government purchases of access to large quantities of personal data from apps including a widely-used Muslim prayer and Quran app and a popular Muslim dating app” and seek greater clarity.
Congress has yet to full investigate this ongoing issue of the U.S. government and military contractors spying on Muslim apps.
BACKGROUND
The Wall Street Journal reports that the military contractor linked Panamanian registered company, Measurement Systems, “told app-makers it wanted data primarily from the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia.”
App developers were reportedly paid by Measurement Systems to embed its metadata collection code into their app software that is popular among American Muslims.
Breaking down the shell-corporation-like structure of Measurement Systems, the Wall Street Journal found that the “Panamanian company that wrote the code, Measurement Systems S. de R.L., is linked through corporate records and web registrations” tothe “U.S.-based company named Vostrom Holdings Inc.,” which in turn “does business with the federal government through a subsidiary, Packet Forensics LLC.” and that “Vostrom and its subsidiaries are affiliated with Rodney Joffe, a longtime cybersecurity consultant for the U.S. government” who “has a minority ownership interest in Packet Forensics.”
The Egypt-based developer of Al Moazin told Wall Street Journal that they thought Measurement Systems “was collecting data on behalf of internet-service providers as well as financial-service and energy companies” and not on behalf of U.S. military contractors.
However, this is not the first time a U.S. military contractor has been caught secretly purchasing the metadata from popular Muslim apps. In November 2020, an article published by Vice titled “How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps,” detailed how U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), the branch of the military responsible for counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and special reconnaissance, purchased the movement data of Muslims who use the popular apps Muslim Pro and Muslim Mingle through military contractors’ third-party access, via the company X-Mode.
An estimated 98 million users, including many American Muslims, have downloaded Muslim Pro on Apple and Google Play enabled devices, and an additional 100,000 have downloaded Muslim Mingle. USSOCOM reportedly used this private information from Muslim users to assist on overseas special forces operations.
Last Wednesday, CAIR and its counsel, the Communications & Technology Law Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the alleged deceptive and unfair practices used to extract personal data from Muslim app users for potential use in warrantless surveillance. As we explained in that complaint, although location tracking is harmful for all consumers:
“Location tracking has had a disproportionate harmful impact on American Muslims, limiting both their First Amendment activity and their consumer choice. Given hyper-surveillance concerns, deceptive practices that have been adopted by many apps used by American Muslims chill the practice of religion and freedom of assembly, rights so fundamental they are protected by the First Amendment. Revelations that some of the most popular apps among Muslims were sharing their location data with defense contractors and the military compounded a sense of constant surveillance inside the Muslim community, leading many American Muslims to either stop using apps or take other steps to avoid the deceptive practices.”
The FTC has not yet confirmed whether it intends to investigate this complaint, or the new allegations being made about Measurement Systems.
CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com