Fitness app Strava gives away location of Biden, Trump and other leaders, French newspaper says.
Fitness app Strava gives away location of Biden, Trump and other leaders, French newspaper says.
Le Monde reports that confidential movements of powerful leaders like Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris could be tracked through a fitness app used by their bodyguards.
What! There's no way Trump uses Strava.
reads article
Oh, the bodyguards... that makes sense and is kinda smart to investigate.
Why would they let bodyguards use tracking apps? Are we really that bad at opsec?
Yup
Yes, and we’re in denial about it.
Hmm, so he's not a fitness buff... Maybe we could track him by looking at state library databases and seeing when and where he has most recently checked out library books??
The military had a similar problem with fitness apps for a while.
https://www.wired.com/story/strava-heat-map-military-bases-fitness-trackers-privacy/
I used this exact thing as a teaching aid when I taught the ROTC opsec lesson. Also scared a couple kids pale when I told them Snapchat keeps a 6-month record of everything you send
Some science magazines guessed something big was going on when many of their subscribers changed the delivery address to New Mexico.
They were working on the Manhattan Project.
Unlike this, fitness apps don't require external connectivity or computing resources not satisfied by today's handheld devices.
I find this to be a breakdown of training, because the training was pretty clear years ago when I had clearance with the navy that we were never to use apps like this that could disclose location, not just while on-duty or on base, but at any time that our location could be given away. We were specifically not allowed to have Fitbits or other smart watches (Fitbit was the big one at the time) that could share location and any apps that wanted to know our location (yes, on our personal phones) needed to be cleared by IT because we were people that had been granted clearance and therefore could not give away critical location information.
The big scandal that got a lot of people into trouble was Pokemon Go, because not only did it use location, but I guess it used camera too? I didn't know, I didn't play it, but using cameras on base was a HUGE no-no, so using an app that shared location AND picture during your lunch break broke the brains of the COs.
It seems so weird to me that this is something that is so widespread right now. I didn't work for the navy anymore and haven't in a while, but I still follow the basic safety protocols about not sharing sensitive information.
Politicians when they realize the commercialized espionage they’ve allowed also applies to them:
Just like Angela Merkel's upset remark "you don't spy on your friends".
Well yes, dear Angela, they spy on everyone. And it's telling that the outrage came only because she was personally affected. The peasants' data and personal lives are fair game.
Secret service lets them use normie phones loaded with normie apps?
Secret service leta them use normie phones loaded with normie apps?
No. At least not while they were on duty.
But they used their device while off-duty, but at the same hotel they were at.
I still don't get why Strava activities are public by default and why they do not make their users aware of it. I remember having to rummage through the settings to make activities private by default.
I am less surprised that the information is out there than I am that the bodyguards of such people are allowed to either bring along their personal devices or install random crap from the public app stores on their work devices.
Crazy. What's next? Can they track us with our phones too? 🤯
Trump's tracking: Golf, golf, McDs, court, golf, golf, court, Mcds, McDs, McDs, golf...
There's no way Trump's usual McDs is in person
He has staff procure it for him
I have a sports watch and the corresponding fitness app. I can confirm. "Sitting on one's ass at the restaurant" is not a fitness activity. HOWEVER. Some of my activities (e.g. walks) do terminate near fast food jonts. ...I dread what that kind of data analysis would yield on a major political figure.
The article said that they track the movements of bodyguards. I doubt Trump or Biden use anything remotely related to fitness. Obama might have.
You'd think the secret service were better at opsec than random soldiers getting their helicopters blown up.
I’ve intuited, maybe correctly, the service has become changed over the years and is not what it once was. Stuff like this makes me think that maybe my armchair analysis is correct
Considering Trump almost got his head blown off because they let a guy sit on a roof with a rifle at a political rally for 5 minutes... that's not a stretch.
No, people have always been shit at stuff like this.
You won't need Strava to know Joe's at the ice cream parlour. Pffffff.
What is this "fitness" they speak of? It seems to be from overseas. Could someone explain this to an American like me?
Oh my god who cares.
I can imagine the secret service will.
And hopefully does something about. Disciplinary for the poor OPSEC and/or better resources to avoid it and/or better laws to stop this unfettered data collection and/or better training to avoid it in the future. Here's hoping. Holds breath