Many mobile applications ask for our permission to access our locations as soon as we log in. We can usually accept this permission without much concern. But if you were a soldier taking part in an undercover operation, would you grant access to your location?
An exercise tracking app Stravawhich shows the distance traveled by its users while running or cycling. heat map had published it. However, this heat map Syria and Afghanistan It revealed the location of foreign military bases in some countries, including
After this incident in 2018 Confidence in the practice has decreased and tensions between countries increased even more. So what exactly caused all this?
San Francisco-based Strava uses mobile phones to track exercise activities of its subscribers. GPS tracking doing. In this way, users can control their own performance and with the work of other users can compare their own maps.
worldwide 27 million users The application said to be more than 13 trillion It has a GPS point.
A 20-year-old young man noticed all these military bases.
student studying international security at the Australian National University Nathan Ruserobserved the heat map and caught interesting details here. Especially deserted areas at certain points, with regular times and routes The exercises taking place were visible.
There were generally farmers in the mentioned areas, but these people did not follow a regular route. for long periods of time He wouldn’t exercise. Based on these findings, Nathan around the world He scanned deserted spots and came across similar heat maps. He then relayed his findings to X users.
Nathan, who revealed the military bases, also learned which states were stationed in which countries. One activist even identified the soldiers’ names.
Ruser, Strava users US bases in Afghanistan, Turkish military patrols in Syria and reported that he had detected Russia’s activities regarding a possible guard patrol in the Syrian operation zone. Apparently, the private information of the soldiers at these bases could be learned through software.
Researcher and activist Paul Dietrich used publicly available data from Strava’s website to french soldier Things got serious when he said he followed her until she got home. The situation was really troublesome because, as the name suggests, these bases ”hidden” It was supposed to happen.
So is it legal to leak these locations?
In fact, the app gets consent from its users to use their location. However, unfortunately, the soldiers did not pay attention to this and tried to share their positions. they chose themselves. Therefore, there is nothing illegal about it.
In addition, analysts responsibility for this mistake It uploads it to the US military and other organizations, not Strava.
Nathan Ruser has accomplished many events as a Xinjiang activist.
Although China said that they “did not establish concentration camps” for Uyghur Turks, it continued to secretly build these camps; Featuring Nathan Russer ASPI research team It was leaked by.
Regarding the subject, Nathan Ruser said, ““This evidence in the database shows that investments in the construction of new detention facilities continued throughout 2019 and 2020, despite claims by Chinese officials that detainees were leaving the camps.” said.
Still, the Strava incident served as a prime example of how social media can compromise the operational security of even the most sensitive military and intelligence agencies. Analysts and journalists have previously Positions of Russian troops in Ukraine they had tracked based on selfies and other public data shared on social media.
Iraqi insurgents in 2007had used geotagged photographs shared on social media of US Army attack helicopters landing on an air base to detect and destroy four of the expensive war machines in a mortar attack.
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