Could a credit card buy the location of U.S. troops? Military shuts down ad tracking over Middle East fears

A tool normally used to deliver targeted advertising may have created a security gap for U.S. troops in a war zone. The U.S. Air Force, Army and Special Operations Command have been disabling advertising identifiers on government-issued phones and computers amid fears that commercial location data could be used to track forces in the Middle East.

Reuters reported that the information came from a Pentagon response released by Senator Ron Wyden and statements provided by the military. Representative Pat Harrigan, a former special operations officer, questioned how easily an adversary might obtain such data. “The enemy should not be able to simply pull out a credit card and buy information that helps track U.S. troops,” he said.

Mobile advertising identifiers, or MAIDs, allow advertisers to recognize individual devices and follow users’ locations. Data brokers and other companies can collect, organize and trade that information, raising national-security concerns when service members operate in combat zones.

The Air Force told Wyden that it disabled advertising identifiers on government-issued computers and phones about two months ago. Special Operations Command said it had recently disabled the function on Windows devices. The Army said it disabled identifiers on mobile devices earlier this year and had blocked them on Windows computers before 2021. Android and Apple mobile devices have been set to disable the identifiers by default since at least February. The Navy said it had also taken steps, but did not provide a date.

Wyden said shutting down the identifiers on official equipment only reduces the risk. Deployed personnel may still carry private phones, while applications and other technologies can continue to generate location data. Reuters reported in July that some troops deployed to the Middle East might even be required to surrender personal phones because of concerns over phone use and social-media posts revealing base locations. Wyden and Harrigan have asked the Pentagon to investigate whether the military has adequately addressed the threat posed by commercial location data.

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The enemy should not be able to simply pull out a credit card and buy information that helps track U.S. troops.