Fitness App gives away secret military bases

The company that makes the Fitbit exercise tracker has published a heat map, using GPS datapoints of 27 million people, totaling 3 trillion points. Some of these points include military bases, including bases that aren't public. One heat track was of a cyclist at Groom Lake. There were many at locations in Syria, and UK bases in the Falklands, as well as a suspected CIA base in Mogadishu. The Pentagon handed out Fitbits to soldiers in 2013, in an attempt to encourage improving fitness.

It looks like there are going to be some pretty interesting meetings coming up tomorrow at military bases around the world. The app has the option to turn off tracking, but going by the amount of data that has been saved, none of the military units has turned it off. The map was released in November, and has data from as late as September.

Sensitive information about the location and staffing of military bases and spy outposts around the world has been revealed by a fitness tracking company.

The details were released by Strava in a data visualisation map that shows all the activity tracked by users of its app, which allows people to record their exercise and share it with others.

The map, released in November 2017, shows every single activity ever uploaded to Strava – more than 3 trillion individual GPS data points, according to the company. The app can be used on various devices including smartphones and fitness trackers like Fitbit to see popular running routes in major cities, or spot individuals in more remote areas who have unusual exercise patterns.

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a reply to: Zaphod58

Never understood those things, I always just trail run and prefer not to see the same thing again and again.

its amazing to me that some of these companies never think about these things considering how manic so many military people are about this kind of things.

That is a good example of the unexpected issues that can arise from IOT scenarios.

Im a big fan of data and metrics like that but there are multiple ways someone , with the right access, could see where I have been over the past years.
It's a price Im willing to pay for the gains and information I personally get from connectivity.

I also understand that my life is not nearly as risky as someone in a combat zone so opsec and infosec rules have to be applied differently.

It is astounding and appauling how blind our security services are to many new technologies that are implemented either through corporate promotion (giving military free product) or by members bringing in devices themselves.

there needs to be a new set of standards introduced where there is an approved list of items allowed to be used on base (or even in some soldiers/employees homes) and all other items are prohibited. If a company wants the items to be allowed in these special sectors, then they have to release full details of their product (including back end functionality) and pay to have them go through a "vetting" process to clear them of any potential security issues.

When the talking Furbie came out in the 90's (a huge Christmas gift that year) they were banned from security installations because they recorded things it heard around them and could be used to capture people's voices. At least people were thinking back then.

a reply to: Irishhaf

God I'd love to be a fly on the wall tomorrow. That promises to be an interesting meeting with a lot of people.

a reply to: Zaphod58

LOL!

Wonder if Geraldo will be the one reporting...accidentally exposing secret locations of military are his thing...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Personally I would like to see them banned on a military installation, its always some schmuck that is trying to relive their non-existent glory days and loves to talk about his gains while pushing the limit on the waist measurement for the USAF.

in 2013

hmmmm.....another Obama-era "mistake" regarding our military security.

a reply to: Irishhaf

There shouldn't be anything like this allowed on military bases, especially overseas locations. This is actually worse than the drone debacle the Army found a few months ago.

a reply to: Zaphod58

last deployment at a base we had not officially recognized yet, and I knew several people with running apps on their phone that tracked every step they made.

I truly do hate those things, and so many people just do not realize how much is tracked it should be part of every security briefing prior to a deployment.

a reply to: Irishhaf

They're busy freaking out over the ADS-B requirement for aircraft, and being able to track military aircraft, that they completely forgot to worry about things like this. Everyone forgets the little things like this, and worries about the big things.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Everyone forgets the little things like this, and worries about the big things.

This right here is pretty much the reason for all the high profile hacks that we have read about, and lets be honest the military is usually worse about things like this than their civilian counterparts.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Irishhaf

They're busy freaking out over the ADS-B requirement for aircraft, and being able to track military aircraft, that they completely forgot to worry about things like this. Everyone forgets the little things like this, and worries about the big things.

Ah, a big NSA failure here. Tech, back fires on privacy for the govt. Good to see and hear about it. Maybe they'll give google some advice and stop tracking everyone around the world now.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That's interesting.

My chain of command published a new policy about electronic device use the other day, and it singled out fitness devices that have location trackers. In addition to telling everyone to disable location services on all devices.

originally posted by: watchitburn
a reply to: Zaphod58

That's interesting.

My chain of command published a new policy about electronic device use the other day, and it singled out fitness devices that have location trackers. In addition to telling everyone to disable location services on all devices.

are stationed overseas?

Alexa! launch missiles.

bahahahahaha

who is handling security at the Pentagon??

IoT security is going to be the next big thing

originally posted by: toysforadults
bahahahahaha

who is handling security at the Pentagon??

They gave that to a private contractor dude, didn't you know that.

One of the articles mentioned they were tracking rich people?
Let me guess there is also a high end Garmin product with tracking enabled by default?

a reply to: Cauliflower

They said they have the richest database, not that they were tracking rich people.

Our global heatmap is the largest, richest, and most beautiful dataset of its kind. It is a direct visualisation of Strava’s global network of athletes.”