Enemies are tracking our troops with commercial smartphone data. Congress can end it.
Key takeaways
- A new Pentagon order says military troops and other defense personnel on certain sensitive bases and warzone areas won’t be allowed to use fitness tracker or cellphone applications that can reveal their location.
- He tracked our forces in real time through the smartphones in their own pockets, and he didn t hack anything to do it.
- It is a real vulnerability that has left American troops exposed in active conflict.
Why this matters: political developments that affect policy direction and public trust.
A new Pentagon order says military troops and other defense personnel on certain sensitive bases and warzone areas won’t be allowed to use fitness tracker or cellphone applications that can reveal their location. The memo stops short of banning the fitness trackers or other electronic devices, which are often linked to cell phone applications and can provide the users’ GPS details to social media. It says GPS technologies present significant risk to personnel. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Somewhere in the Middle East, an American soldier finishes his shift, heads back to quarters, and calls his family to say he ll be home soon. Elsewhere, an adversary s intelligence analyst has been watching that soldier move all day — and not only him. He s been watching everyone on the base. Now he sees them converge on the barracks for the night.
A missile is aimed and fired. The soldiers will never see home again.
The analyst had no drone overhead. He didn t need one. He tracked our forces in real time through the smartphones in their own pockets, and he didn t hack anything to do it. He simply bought the data from the same digital-marketing companies that try to sell you breakfast cereal as you drive past the supermarket.