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<font size="5" class="">TOM DISPATCH: </font></h6>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; font-family: inherit;" class="">Here's a kind of howler of the age of information-gathering and surveillance. Running around secret military bases with your Fitbit on now allows others out here to locate those bases from Afghanistan
to god knows where. No more secrets on this Fitbitted planet of ours. Tom</p>
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;" class="">"Sensitive information about the location and staffing of military bases and spy outposts around the world has been revealed by a fitness tracking company.</p>
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;" class="">"The details were released by Strava in a data<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;"> 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.</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; font-family: inherit;" class="">"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.</p>
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;" class="">"However, over the weekend military analysts noticed that the map is also detailed enough that it potentially gives away extremely sensitive information about a subset of Strava users: military personnel
on active service.</p>
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;" class="">"Nathan Ruser, an analyst with the Institute for United Conflict Analysts, first noted the lapse. The heatmap “looks very pretty” he wrote, but is “not amazing for Op-Sec” – short for operational security.
“US Bases are clearly identifiable and mappable.”</p>
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;" class="">“If soldiers use the app like normal people do, by turning it on tracking when they go to do exercise, it could be especially dangerous,” Ruser added, highlighting one particular track that “looks like
it logs a regular jogging route.”</p>
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;" class="">“In Syria, known coalition (ie US) bases light up the night,” writes analyst Tobias Schneider. “Some light markers over known Russian positions, no notable colouring for Iranian bases … A lot of people
are going to have to sit through lectures come Monday morning.”</p>
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;" class="">"In locations like Afghanistan, Djibouti and Syria, the users of Strava seem to be almost exclusively foreign military personnel, meaning that bases stand out brightly. In Helmand province, Afghanistan,
for instance, the locations of forward operating bases can be clearly seen, glowing white against the black map.</p>
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;" class="">"Zooming in on one of the larger bases clearly reveals its internal layout, as mapped out by the tracked jogging routes of numerous soldiers. The base itself is not visible on the satellite views of
commercial providers such as Google Maps or Apple’s Maps, yet it can be clearly seen through Strava...."</p>
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;" class=""><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2018%2Fjan%2F28%2Ffitness-tracking-app-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases&h=ATPBJIniCX8oM21cYyjKU9uBRB9u2-Lo1_ECkxo1wzSFxYM8pUzSEsKtYGoENs3WNTxq04sOHDgYHzRZt50JPvOfkSW1D04XCeoHgBkvLLErBppzWpHTFH-CGibSbnY5fsPpwDB7ZAMsNZ2axkz3yX4T9mqEdhusIsGgPiq5tkD1Mu8ezPzeJvfnGAzzlYr45dYqVbvJdKXbx18NpuUd2PAahD3vOnKoW-fXcPuNOZQLyKnidbyQcHEBaDqJHXfR4jYL66BDPLn6NfbxSQYgqlxKdmukwrOzX13Jlmz1Fdc_F6HDV-n-sCoZ0g" target="_blank" data-ft="{"tn":"-U"}" rel="noopener nofollow" data-lynx-mode="async" style="color: rgb(54, 88, 153); cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; font-family: inherit;" class="">https://www.theguardian.com/…/fitness-tracking-app-gives-aw…</a></p>
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