Outlogic (formerly X-Mode Social)
The moment a page loads, details of your visit go out to the companies bidding to show you an ad. Other firms never go near you and build your file from bought sources instead. Opt-outs are usually tied to one device, and retention runs from a week to no limit at all.
Reported incidents
FTC bans the broker from selling data on visits to places of worship and clinics
2024-01-09The Federal Trade Commission ordered X-Mode Social and its successor Outlogic to stop sharing or selling sensitive location data, in its first settlement with a data broker over such data. The FTC said the company sold raw location tied to advertising IDs that could track visits to places of worship, medical and reproductive health clinics and domestic abuse shelters, and failed to get informed consent from users of apps carrying its code. The order requires it to delete data it collected unless consent is obtained or the data is deidentified.
Leaked sample shows 107 apps, including Muslim prayer apps, sold location to the broker
2022-01-27The Markup obtained a sample of location data X-Mode bought in 2018 and 2019, provided by a former employee and confirmed by a second. It came from 107 apps and more than 20,000 advertising IDs in 140 countries. It named four more Muslim prayer apps that sold location to X-Mode in 2019: Qibla Locator, Full Quran MP3, Al Quran Mp3 and Prayer Times: Qibla & Quran. Their developers did not respond. Former staff said X-Mode's collection peaked in 2018 and 2019.
Apple and Google order apps to remove the broker's location tracking code
2020-12-09Apple and Google told developers to remove X-Mode Social's tracking code from their apps or face removal from their stores, weeks after reports that Muslim Pro sent users' location to X-Mode and that X-Mode sold data to US defence contractors. A Wyden aide said Apple found about 100 apps from 30 developers using it and gave them until 18 December; Google gave seven days, with extensions of up to 30. X-Mode said a ban would set a precedent for the whole advertising industry.
Broker confirmed selling US phone location data to military customers via contractors
2020-11-16Senator Ron Wyden said lawyers for X-Mode Social confirmed on a September 2020 call that it sold location data collected from US phones to US military customers through defence contractors, and would not name them. X-Mode paid apps to embed its code, which sent users' location back to it. Motherboard traced data from the Muslim Pro prayer app and the Muslim Mingle dating app to X-Mode. X-Mode said its work with such contractors focused on "counter-terrorism, cybersecurity and predicting future COVID-19 hotspots".
People affected typically ask Outlogic (formerly X-Mode Social) to confirm whether their information was included, and which categories.
The verified route
DÆTRAX is a personal data accountability ledger: a dated record of which companies hold your personal data, what you asked them to do about it, and what they claimed in reply.