MILITARY: “The Pentagon is reviewing policies that allow deployed troops to use activity-measuring devices and fitness apps that rely on GPS tracking, after publication of a digital map online accidentally exposed information that could reveal where American troops are deployed or even precisely where they exercise overseas.
An interactive display called the Global Heat Map, published online by the fitness app Strava, is based on satellite information gathered to track the location and activity level of its users. The map has existed online since fall, but an Australian researcher demonstrated over the weekend how it could potentially be used to track the movement and locations of military formations, including U.S. troops. Many wear such devices to monitor their fitness activity.
Portions of the map show areas that likely constitute running or patrol routes for troops in places like east Africa, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan—anywhere troops are deployed but where their locations and numbers aren’t necessarily disclosed by the U.S. military, analysts said.
The publication of the map amounted to a potential security breach for the Pentagon, which usually avoids publicly disclosing even how many troops it has deployed to any given country, let alone where they patrol or run for exercise.
Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday [1-29-18] that officials weren’t aware that troops have been directly endangered. He said the military is reviewing the issue to see if it should adjust its policies or training as a result.
The Pentagon hasn’t banned use of the devices, Col. Manning said. But it did give discretion to commanders across the military to decide if they would allow their troops to use such devices or not. Other devices, such as Fitbit s, work on a similar basis, by transmitting data so it can be stored online and later analyzed by their wearers.”
-Gordon Lubold and Rob Taylor, “Pentagon Reviewing Troops’ Use of Fitness Trackers in Light of Security Concerns,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 30, 2018 12:31am