Secret US army base locations leaked by app

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...p-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases

Interesting read I came across. Here's yet another example of what may steer people away from GPS apps for sure, but the fact that the company was even tracking and releasing this information goes beyond me. Not only is this a risk on national security for the US, but it's a reason I could side with those who are so anti-data collecting and worried about collection of their data.

Your thoughts?

That is extremely dangerous for all active duty personnel. You can get a basic layout of all our FOBs overseas with this, which would be helpful information in planning an attack. This is why maps and such are scrubbed of this kind of information, it could get people killed.

I suppose we'll have to see what come into the news first. "Attack on US base planned with Strava" or "Military forbids use of Fitness App and scrubs all maps"

I sure as hell won't be using that app. That one in the article about the lone biker creeps me the hell out. If someone wanted to ambush that guy in the middle of the desert, they'd have his exact route.

Reading through the article, I don't really see Strava having done anything wrong. The soldiers decided to use it knowing they're sharing their data, because that's what the app is for in the first place. Correct me if I'm wrong but this isn't a leak, or something Strava did that it told its users it wouldn't do. In fact, it's something it told it's users it would do, isn't it?

I think military personnel, and civilians too, should be made more aware of what these apps do instead of getting rid of apps that do it. I'm actually quite surprised personnel stationed at secret bases use any apps that involve location sharing at all. That seems, in all honesty, a bit on the not-so-smart side.

KetsuekiR said:

Reading through the article, I don't really see Strava having done anything wrong.

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So you don't think it's wrong that Strava published a map outlining where these soldiers have been? Better if they kept that data to themselves.

I'm not going to lie, I feel concerned that there are so many websites and even computers that decide to track your location through GPS or other means and don't let you know that they do that. Or worse, they might let you know about it but refuse to allow you an option to turn it off without cracking into the device settings. Smartphones can be tracked by where they attempt to pick up service, not only by GPS, and there's no easy button to turn that off.

Saw this story on the news this morning, so at least it's gstting a little more widespread and hopefully defer people from this brand.

Tsutarja said:

So you don't think it's wrong that Strava published a map outlining where these soldiers have been? Better if they kept that data to themselves.

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I think it's absolutely wrong, if they did so knowing it was a secret base. I doubt there's a field whrn registering that asks if they're a soldier being stationed in a remote army base undosclosed to the public. Is there evidence of this or did they publish a map using data provided by its users, as users?

KetsuekiR said:

I think it's absolutely wrong, if they did so knowing it was a secret base. I doubt there's a field whrn registering that asks if they're a soldier being stationed in a remote army base undosclosed to the public. Is there evidence of this or did they publish a map using data provided by its users, as users?

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Guess this is kind of old news by now, but from what I saw, people were able to mark these places as "super-secret bases" on the map that Strava released. They do this because they're trying to do bad things to people or they want to save that info and then sell it off to someone else in case Strava realizes their mistake and cuts the feature off.


Sidenote from my earlier post: I brought up apps that don't care about your phone's settings because I've used a social media Q&A app called Kiwi that plops your questions together with your location even when your GPS is "turned off". I've traveled to a few places that may not have many people using Kiwi, and I have used Kiwi to ask personal questions that I didn't want to ask irl. I could see how someone could do bad stuff with my identity if they were tempted and connected enough dots, but thankfully I have some apps that I turn on that mess with the location that is shared with other apps like Kiwi.

littlebrother said:

Guess this is kind of old news by now, but from what I saw, people were able to mark these places as "super-secret bases" on the map that Strava released. They do this because they're trying to do bad things to people or they want to save that info and then sell it off to someone else in case Strava realizes their mistake and cuts the feature off.

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I agree with you that once it's discovered that this data shouldn't be out there, Strava should take it down. What I was saying was that if personnel stationed here were better aware of location based services and what using an app like Strava at a place like that entails, it wouldn't have happened.

Strava should take it down now, but it's not Strava's fault it went up in the first place because it was just doing its job.