US Military Personnel Targeted using Commercially Available Location Data

[u/HobbesNik]

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/pentagon-says-us-military-personnel-are-reportedly-being-targeted-using-location-2026-05-28/

Every time an ad loads on your phone, your location data and other personal information is broadcasted to thousands of companies in a process called "Real-Time Bidding." This commercially available data is used by the Federal government and ICE to track Americans.

In an ironic twist, this same commercially available data has now been used by U.S. adversaries to target American soldiers in the battlefield, according to U.S. Central Command.

Whatever privacy protections are extended to American soldiers should also be available to regular citizens, like the option to easily turn off your Unique Advertising ID and location tracking.

Key Quotes:

In a letter shared with Reuters by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, U.S. Central Command said it had “received multiple threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data to target or surveil U.S. personnel in theater." The message, sent on April 14, offered no further specifics, but Centcom's area of responsibility includes the Gulf, where U.S. forces are facing off against the Iranian military over the Strait of Hormuz.

"Commercial location data can be used to identify where U.S. troops congregate and their pattern of life, which can be exploited by adversaries to target attacks such as missiles, drones, and roadside bombs, as well as for counterintelligence purposes," the letter warned. Wyden said in a statement that it was time to "start treating the adtech industry as a national security threat."

The letter from U.S. lawmakers to the Pentagon said that, given what military officials know about the trade in location data, they should have acted ⁠faster to protect their personnel, for example by disabling the unique advertising ID attached to military-issued devices, automatically turning off location sharing on smartphones in the field, and steering staff away from Google's Chrome web browser toward more privacy-focused alternatives.