The Pentagon on Monday barred the use of GPS features used on popular fitness apps and other devices among its deployed forces after the data exposed sensitive information about troops and bases.
“These geolocation capabilities can expose personal information, locations, routines, and numbers of department personnel, and potentially create unintended security consequences and increased risk to the joint force and mission,” Maj. Audricia Harris, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Most recently the fitness app Polar allowed users to track the movements of military users on some secret facilities and could have been misused with “potentially disastrous results,” according to a joint investigation between Bellingcat and the Dutch journalism site De Correspondent found.
The Pentagon launched a policy review in January after similar information was exposed through the exercise tracking app Strava.
Troops in the deployed locations are immediately prohibited from using the geolocation features on private and government devices unless authorized by a military combatant commander, the Monday Pentagon memo said.
“As we were developing it, we wanted to be very clear about giving commanders latitude, some type of space to make decisions on the ground,” said Col. Rob Manning, the director of press operations at the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, military officials have been tasked with creating risk management guidance and new training for such devices within 30 days.
