My Authors
Read all threads
"A threat intelligence firm called HYAS …is buying location data harvested from ordinary apps installed on peoples' phones around the world …and claims to be able to track people to their 'doorstep'."

Systemic misuse of data from apps and 'advertising': vice.com/en_us/article/…
"HYAS' location data comes from X-Mode, a company that started with an app named 'Drunk Mode,' designed to prevent college students from making drunk phone calls and has since pivoted to selling user data from a wide swath of apps"
According to an X-Mode spokesperson quoted by Vice, they 'obfuscate any user IDs' and they 'aggregate devices using generalization' when they sell location data gathered from apps. Whatever this means.
Why does X-Mode then sell individual-level 'raw' location data records on 25-60 million people via a data marketplace they proudly link to on their website, including personal identifiers (advertising ID, IP) and many other fields?
snowflake.com/datasets/x-mod…
xmode.io/snowflake-and-…
So, where's the 'aggregation' and 'obfuscation'?

According to its privacy policy, X-Mode shares location data including personal IDs and other info with at least 87 'customers', which it also calls 'trusted partners', listed here:
xmode.io/trusted-partne…
xmode.io/xmode-privacy-…
According to this list, X-Mode sells data to HYAS and to:

- giants like Facebook, Microsoft, Telefonica, Cisco
- well-known data brokers like LiveRamp, Nielsen, Lotame
- other location data brokers like Factual

…and to many firms I never heard of. And believe me, I know a lot.
Who are these companies?

For example, according to its list of 'trusted partners', X-Mode shares location data sourced from unknown mobile apps with Culmen, a defense contractor.
culmen.com/clients
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh.

Keep Current with Wolfie Christl

Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!