X-Mode social
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Location data aggregation |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Founder | Joshua Anton |
| Headquarters | Reston, Virginia , United States |
| Products | Software development kit (SDK) for smartphone location data collection |
Founded in 2013, X-Mode Social is an American enterprise headquartered in Reston, Virginia.
Specializing in the aggregation of smartphone location information, X-Mode was acquired by Digital Envoy in August 2021 and subsequently rebranded as Outlogic.
Company history
Joshua Anton, then a student at the University of Virginia, developed the mobile application Drunk Mode to help users avoid texting or calling while under the influence. After surpassing one million downloads, Anton capitalized on the app’s user data for advertising revenue and established X-Mode in 2013.
X-Mode provides a software development kit (SDK) that is embedded within various apps to gather smartphone location data. This SDK is utilized by over 70 developers and incorporated into more than 300 applications, including gaming, travel guides, and dating platforms. The system collects location information from upwards of 50 million active users every 5 to 7 minutes.
The location tracking relies on data from GPS, Bluetooth beacons, and Wi-Fi access points to achieve accurate positioning. Users have the option to disable location sharing through their device settings. X-Mode operates among several companies offering smartphone tracking and data harvesting services.
Revenue is generated by compensating developers who integrate its SDK: $0.03 monthly per U.S.-based user and $0.005 for each international user. The network monitors approximately 25 million active users within the United States and 40 million globally across more than 400 applications. In 2018, X-Mode proposed a $100,000 payment to Scruff—a dating app catering to gay and bisexual men—to incorporate its SDK; however, this proposal was declined.
In 2020, X-Mode illustrated how location data could be utilized to track COVID-19 transmission patterns linked to social distancing violations. The company also collaborates with federal bodies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by providing data to assist in monitoring quarantine adherence.
Critics
In November 2020, Vice published a report alleging that X-Mode shared location data from Muslim Pro—an app with 98 million downloads—with a U.S. military intelligence contractor. Following public backlash and legal proceedings in France and the United Kingdom, Muslim Pro stopped transmitting data to X-Mode.
By December 2020, both Google and Apple mandated the removal of X-Mode’s SDK from apps on their platforms, warning that non-compliance would result in app store removals.
An investigation conducted by The Markup in January 2022 revealed that X-Mode transmitted location information from 107 applications operating in 140 countries. For certain apps, this data was shared with X-Mode directly without employing the SDK.