A class action lawsuit accuses app maker BitsMedia of wrongly allowing other organizations, potentially including the government, to use location data logged by an app to track the movement of Muslims in the U.S.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of named plaintiff Syed Ali, identified as a resident of Illinois.
The complaint alleges that BitsMedia's app Muslim Pro, which offers translations of the Quran and aids Muslims in finding accurate prayer times and the Qibla direction for prayer, has been secretly selling real time user location data to data brokers.
According to the lawsuit, the Muslim Pro app has been downloaded more than 155 million times.
According to the complaint, BitsMedia allegedly promised not to sell user data. However, the complaint accuses BitsMedia of allegedly still selling real-time locations and movements to at least one data broker, identified in the lawsuit as X-Mode Social Inc. According to the complaint, that broker allegedly subsequently sold the data to various purchasers, allegedly including government contractors.
The plaintiffs seek to expand the lawsuit to include a class of additional plaintiffs that could include everyone in Illinois who paid for subscription to Muslim Pro and whose locations were allegedly tracked and shared.
The lawsuit alleges BitsMedia's alleged conduct in this matter violated Illinois' consumer fraud law.
The lawsuit asks the court to order BitsMedia to pay unspecified damages for each alleged violation of the consumer fraud law and for each alleged breach of contract, plus attorney fees.