Fitness Trackers Revealing..UPDATED!

[kadee79]

This could be very dangerous....

An interactive map posted on the Internet that shows the whereabouts of people who use fitness devices such as Fitbit also reveals highly sensitive information about the location and activities of soldiers at U.S. military bases, in what appears to be a major security oversight.

The Global Heat Map, published by the GPS tracking company Strava, uses satellite information to map the location and movements of subscribers to the company's fitness service over a two-year period, by illuminating areas of activity.

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Strava says it has 27 million users around the world, including people who own widely available fitness devices such as Fitbit, Jawbone and Vitofit, as well as people who directly subscribe to its mobile phone application. The map is not live – rather it shows a pattern of accumulated activity between 2015 and September last year.

Most parts of the United States and Europe, where millions of people use some form of fitness tracker, show up on the map as a blaze of light, because there is so much activity.

In warzones and deserts such as Iraq and Syria, the heatmap becomes almost entirely dark – except for a few scattered pinpricks of activity. Zooming in on those brings into focus the locations and outlines of known U.S. military bases, as well as of other unknown and potentially sensitive sites – presumably because U.S. soldiers and other personnel are using fitness trackers as they move around.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-soldiers-are-revealing-sensitive-and-dangerous-information-by-jogging/ar-BBIlBwa?li=BBnb7Kz

[Tennesseer]

Interesting.

[sesfw]

scarey

[Jaguar]

Very scary, UGH!

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Woah!

[kadee79]

Update....

On Monday, the Defense Department launched a review to determine whether new policies are needed, according to Army Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman. The review will be led by Essye B. Miller, the Pentagon's acting chief information officer.

"Recent data releases emphasize the need for situational awareness when members of the military share personal information," Manning said. "We take these matters seriously, and we are reviewing the situation to determine if any additional training or guidance is required, and if any additional policy must be developed to ensure the continued safety of DOD personnel at home and abroad." 

Manning said that he was not aware of the release of information on Strava's interactive map resulting in any compromise of security. He also was not aware of any interaction between the Defense Department and Strava, either before or after the data's release.

But Defense Department personnel are, he said, "advised to place strict privacy settings on wireless technologies and applications, and such technologies are forbidden at specific DOD sites and during specific activities." Service members are also expected to limit their use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter when they are deployed to sensitive locations, he said.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-military-revising-its-rules-after-fitness-trackers-exposed-sensitive-data/ar-BBIplzb?li=BBnbcA1

[haapai]

Translation:  at military checkpoints all around the world, folks are being told to show their wrists and having linked fitness gizmos confiscated. 

I checked out the map and looked up some fairly remote places that I knew of.  The results were interesting.  At least one embassy row appeared to have been deliberately smudged, but I have no idea whether the randomization is recent, pre-agreed-up,  or due to pretty lousy telecommunications infrastructure. 

On a lighter note, some pretty remote islands lit up like x-mas lights and when you drilled down, you noticed that the paths looked exactly like what you would expect if folks were routinely doing laps around the islands.