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posted by FatPhil on Monday January 29 2018, @03:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the sharing-is-caring,-right dept.

Strava, a smartphone app that tracks "athletic activity" using GPS, published an interactive heatmap of user activity around the world. That heatmap included some U.S. military bases:

Military personnel around the world have been publicly sharing their exercise routes online - including those inside or near military bases.

Online fitness tracker Strava has published a "heatmap" showing the paths its users log as they run or cycle. It appears to show the structure of foreign military bases in countries like Syria and Afghanistan, as soldiers move around inside.

The US military is examining the heatmap, a spokesman said. Air Force Colonel John Thomas, a spokesman for US Central Command, told the Washington Post that the US military was reviewing the implications.

Strava said it had excluded activities marked as private from the map. Users who record their exercise data on Strava have the option of making their movements public or private. Private data, the company said, has never been included.

The "private" option is for people who like to track their step count during sexual activity, not protecting the operational security of the military base you're stationed at.

Also at The Guardian, which contains more examples than the BBC for those who don't want to enable JavaScript to view the interactive one linked to above.


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  • (Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Monday January 29 2018, @07:24PM (4 children)

    by DutchUncle (5370) on Monday January 29 2018, @07:24PM (#629977)

    Yes, especially if they're jogging at a forward operating base or advance airfield that isn't already on the map.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @07:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @07:47PM (#629988)

    Awww, way to ruin a good knee-jerk reaction!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @09:16PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @09:16PM (#630029)

    Said bases and airfields are pretty obvious to satellites, recon drones, sigint, and some guy on a camel with binoculars.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Bobs on Monday January 29 2018, @09:27PM

      by Bobs (1462) on Monday January 29 2018, @09:27PM (#630034)

      True, but those camels tend to be really obnoxious, and often won't tell you what they see thru the binoculars. Might be easier to look it up online.

    • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Monday January 29 2018, @10:16PM

      by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 29 2018, @10:16PM (#630060)
      yea but go take a look at the map in Afghanistan. The data does a nice job of mapping the interior layout of the bases as well as showing how much areas are or are not traveled by the app's users. That's a lot of extra detail I'm sure no one at those places really wants to advertise.