Why CodaMail Doesn't Offer a Mobile App

You may notice CodaMail doesn't offer a dedicated phone app - this is intentional and designed with your privacy in mind. As detailed in our article "Your Phone Is A Military Target", smartphones have become powerful surveillance devices, with extensive data collection conducted through seemingly innocent apps.

A January 2025 data breach at Gravy Analytics revealed the alarming scope of this surveillance. The breach exposed 17 terabytes of location data secretly collected from thousands of popular apps including Tinder, Candy Crush, MyFitnessPal, religious apps, email clients, and even VPN apps supposedly designed for privacy. This data is being sold directly to military, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies worldwide.

The primary collection method involves Software Development Kits (SDKs) embedded within mobile apps. These SDKs, often presented as advertising or analytics tools, contain sophisticated tracking capabilities that capture your location as frequently as every 3-5 minutes. Notably, many app developers are unaware that their users' data is ultimately flowing to government agencies through these third-party components.

Security Advantages of Our Web Interface

By offering a responsive web interface that works like an app instead of a native app, CodaMail provides several critical security advantages:

• No SDK Tracking: Our web interface doesn't contain the hidden data collection SDKs common in mobile apps
• Limited Permissions: Web browsers have stricter permission models that prevent access to your precise location, contacts, and other sensitive phone data
• No Background Activity: Unlike apps that can run and collect data in the background, when you close your browser tab, all activity completely stops
• Sandboxed Environment: Browser sandboxing provides an additional layer of security that prevents access to other data on your device
• Direct Connection: Your communication goes directly to our servers without intermediary tracking services analyzing your usage patterns
• Easily Proxied: A web interface is easily proxied, including via Tor, for additional protections
• No App Fingerprint: No app "fingerprint" for other apps on the phone to monitor it's use, browsers are more ubiquitous

Government Surveillance Through App Data

As documented in our research, government agencies like the Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI, and military units actively purchase commercially available smartphone data to monitor individuals—all without requiring warrants or judicial oversight.

The December 2024 FTC complaint against Gravy Analytics and Venntel brought this practice into sharp focus. An order was issued prohibiting Gravy Analytics and its subsidiary Venntel from unlawfully tracking and selling sensitive location data from users, including data about consumers' visits to health-related locations and places of worship without verifiable consent. However, the resulting finalized order in January 2025, while restricting commercial sales of location data without verifiable consent, specifically preserved access for "national security" and law enforcement purposes.

These "carve-outs" effectively codify the practice of using commercial data purchases to circumvent surveillance restrictions. The result is a legal framework where constitutional protections against surveillance can be bypassed through commercial transactions.

Real-World Examples

One of the most striking examples of military use of commercial location data emerged in late 2020, when investigations revealed that U.S. Special Operations Command was purchasing location data from Muslim Pro, an app used by over 98 million Muslims worldwide for prayer times and religious purposes. The data, acquired through broker X-Mode Social, was being used in counterterrorism operations. Another religious app, Salaat First, with 10 million users, was discovered to be part of the same data collection network.

The 2025 Gravy Analytics data breach revealed similar collection from email apps, including data from users of Yahoo Mail and Microsoft 365 mobile apps. Even users of VPN apps, which are designed to enhance privacy, were found to have their data collected and sold through embedded third-party SDKs.

Our Approach to Mobile Email

By avoiding a dedicated app, CodaMail helps protect you from becoming part of this expansive surveillance ecosystem. Our mobile web interface delivers all the functionality you need while maintaining the strict privacy standards that CodaMail users expect.

When using your phone to access email, this approach represents the best balance of convenience and security in a world where your location data has become a valuable commodity.

For more detailed information on this issue, please read our full article "Your Phone Is A Military Target".