The US military has started turning off advertising trackers on phones and computers used by its personnel amid concerns that location data collected by apps could be used to track American troops in the Middle East.
The move affects several branches of the military and comes after reports that commercially available location data can reveal where military personnel are located.
The Air Force told Senator Ron Wyden that it had disabled advertising identifiers on its computers and mobile phones about two months ago. US Special Operations Command has also disabled the trackers on its Windows devices.
The Army said it had already blocked the trackers on Windows computers before 2021 and disabled them on Apple and Android phones in February this year.
These advertising identifiers, known as Mobile Advertising IDs, are normally used by apps and advertisers to track devices and build information about users. The concern is that the same data can potentially be bought from data brokers and used for purposes far beyond advertising.
Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has been pressing the Pentagon over the issue for months and has called for an investigation into whether the military has done enough to protect service members.
The Pentagon has said it will respond to lawmakers.
Turning off the identifiers, however, does not make troops impossible to track. Privacy experts say other forms of data, including information from multiple apps and devices, can still be combined to work out a person’s location.
The military is also considering tighter rules on how troops use mobile devices after concerns that videos posted by deployed personnel could reveal sensitive information.
2026-09-05 22:32:00
