Beer rating app reveals homes and identities of spies and military bods, warns Bellingcat:
A beer and pub-rating app built off the back of Foursquare’s location-tracking API poses a risk to the security of military and intelligence personnel, according to legendary OSINT website Bellingcat.
Untappd 'has over eight million mostly European and North American users, and its features allow researchers to uncover sensitive information about said users at military and intelligence locations around the world,' wrote Bellingcat’s Foeke Postma in a fascinating guide to using the app for tracking down people of interest.
Bellingcat is an open-source intelligence and investigative journalism website. Its most famous contribution to the world was identifying the Russian military personnel who shot down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, something that saw Russian hackers target it in revenge.
Untappd’s concept of operations is simple. You go to the pub and drink beer. During the beer-drinking process you take a picture of your beer with your smartphone and rate it. You can also rate the pub and leave comments. To do these things you need to register an account and provide some personal details – or log in with Facebook.
“Untappd users log hundreds, often thousands of time-stamped location data points. These locations are neatly sorted in over 900 categories, which can be as diverse and specific as 'botanic garden.' 'strip club,' 'gay bar,' 'west-Ukrainian restaurant,' and 'airport gate.' As the result of this, the app allows anyone to trace the movements of other users between sensitive locations,' wrote Bellingcat’s Postma.
“Untappd users log hundreds, often thousands of time-stamped location data points. These locations are neatly sorted in over 900 categories, which can be as diverse and specific as 'botanic garden.' 'strip club,' 'gay bar,' 'west-Ukrainian restaurant,' and 'airport gate.' As the result of this, the app allows anyone to trace the movements of other users between sensitive locations,' wrote Bellingcat’s Postma.
All you need to do to deploy Untappd as an intelligence-gathering tool is use the app through its normal user interface. With a little knowledge of how the app works plus access to online map websites that list pub, bar and restaurant details, it’s scarily simple to find people who probably shouldn’t be easily findable.
So we put it to the test
Quite successfully, at that. The linked Bellingcat guide is thorough and revealing. Not only could this be used to track military personnel, it could be similarly be used on politicians, judges, and executives. Cross-reference it with venues associated with strip clubs, "massage" parlors, and the like. Certainly nothing here that could be used by a divorce attorney, health insurance company, or investigative journalist. Those "snap" decisions could prove quite costly.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @01:01AM (2 children)
If you can't trust a beer-rating app with your personal details, who can you trust?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday May 21 2020, @01:35AM (1 child)
The thing I don't get is, if you rate beer, why does the rating need to be attached to any particular location? Beer is beer, wherever it's served. If it's draft beer and it's badly served, what you should be rating is the bar / barman who served it to you, not the beer itself.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Wraith on Thursday May 21 2020, @05:37AM
The story is misleading.
I use this app, mostly for keeping track of beers I like, and whether I enjoyed or hated them. You're not required to specify a location or to upload a picture.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 21 2020, @01:22AM (11 children)
Among the first rules learned in any spy school, is "trust no one". If a spy is giving personal details to some online application, he needs to be exposed, and suffer any and all consequences. Dumbasses. Why is a spy even carrying a freaking CELL PHONE?!?!?!
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday May 21 2020, @01:32AM (6 children)
Clever spies probably use social media to obcure their tracks. If you want to make it difficult to track you on the internet, poisoning the well is better than saying quiet.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday May 21 2020, @01:46AM (5 children)
I once saw a dingy Jew playing Pokemon Go and collecting Pokemon on his phone inside a secure facility. 'Nuff said. Only dingy disloyal Jews would be that stupid. To this day I wonder if government authorities actually did something about that. Then there's all the stupid fuckers using Fitbits...
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 21 2020, @02:21AM (1 child)
Well, I'd be interrogating the chief of security. How did all those pokemon get inside of a secure facility? The guards were sleeping when all those weird looking poke came parading in the doors?
(Score: 3, Touché) by hendrikboom on Thursday May 21 2020, @08:34PM
Nintendo is in charge of Pokemon security. The guards should be taking this matter up with Nintendo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @06:07PM (2 children)
You reported him, right? Because I'm sure you remember from your training to report observed security violations.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday May 21 2020, @10:49PM (1 child)
Reporting Jews in secure facilities subjects you to Jewish Bolshevism, including being placed on janitor duty and being rubber-stamped "crazy" by a Bolshevik shrink. Ask Edward Snowden and pretty much every national intelligence whistleblower if you don't believe me. He might have been reckless but there was no point in reporting him, as Israel has a direct tap into NSA data they can funnel right to China. What can one do in reporting an enemy spy in an industry run by enemy spies?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 22 2020, @12:39AM
Nothing Ethanol says is in any way related to truth. None of this ever happened, the job, the security violation, his "firing": all just the lunatic fantasies of an alcoholic anti-semite.
(Score: 3, Funny) by petecox on Thursday May 21 2020, @02:54AM
21st century, if you're NOT carrying a mobile phone you're suspicious.
Travelling under a fake name with a fake passport - your cover as travelling beer snob leaving reviews of gay strip clubs and Ukrainian restaurants is foolproof!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday May 21 2020, @03:04AM
Maybe the spies have families, kids, friends, appearances to maintain, etc.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @05:24AM (1 child)
Especially the ones Runaway has been to. I imagine, as a low level swabie, he was told not to trust whores in ports of call, and not to trust people who said, "Hey, Sailor!". But he has provided enough information for anyone to identify his home port, and rank and station, and plastic injection status. Spy school, really, Runaway, you ought to runaway. They have tags on you already, they know about your Russian connections, and pay-outs. So maybe you, Runaway, should trust some people less? Unless the check clears, I guess. How does it feel to be a traitor, Runaway?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 21 2020, @02:31PM
The lowest level of swabbies is still over your head, and out of your reach.
(Score: 4, Funny) by krishnoid on Thursday May 21 2020, @02:55AM
It's going to be pricey because we're in the airport, but with a layover this long, I might as well try something eclectic. Table for two, please.
(Score: 4, Informative) by shortscreen on Thursday May 21 2020, @05:05AM
He hypes all of the warmongers' tall tales like false flag chemical attacks in Syria, then gets quoted in the corporate media as an authoritative source.