military security2 articles
US Troops Are Still Being Tracked Through Commercial Location Data. Congress Is Losing Patience.
US lawmakers Senator Ron Wyden and Rep. Pat Harrigan have requested a Defense Department Inspector General investigation into why US military personnel can still be tracked via commercially purchased location data, despite measures taken to address the issue. While several military branches have disabled advertising identifiers on government-issued devices, location data tied to troops continues to be available, possibly due to delayed implementation, the insufficiency of disabling ad IDs alone, or data leaking from personal devices of personnel and contractors. Security researchers warn that adversarial nations like Russia and China may have been accessing this data through programmatic advertising auctions, posing a significant threat to military personnel, particularly those in combat zones.
Military Apps Riddled With Chinese and Russian Code, Study Finds
A study by researchers from Purdue University, West Point, and Florida International University found that over one in eight apps marketed to US military personnel contain code from companies in adversarial nations, including China and Russia, potentially enabling foreign governments to track troop movements and locations. Nearly two-thirds of the 220+ examined apps included third-party tracking software, with roughly 7 percent carrying code from Pentagon-designated adversaries, and 40 percent collected more data than disclosed in their store listings. Despite growing evidence of real-world threats — including a US Central Command acknowledgement that adversaries have exploited commercial location data to target troops in the Middle East — service members receive little institutional guidance on app privacy, and neither major app store discloses the national origin of code running inside apps.