Exercise tracking map highlights locations of troops
WASHINGTON - An interactive map found online can show the locations and activities of people who use fitness devices such as Fitbit, raising security concerns about soldiers and other people who are at military bases.
The Global Heat Map, published by the GPS tracking company Strava, uses satellite information to map the locations and movements of subscribers to the company's fitness service over a two-year period, by illuminating areas of activity, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.
Strava said it has 27 million users around the world, including people who own widely available fitness devices, as well as people who directly subscribe to its mobile app. The map is not live, but shows a pattern of accumulated activity between 2015 and September last year.
The map shows a great deal of activity in the United States and Europe. But in war zones and deserts in countries such as Iraq and Syria, the heat map becomes almost entirely dark - except for scattered evidence of activity.
A closer look at those areas brings into focus the locations and outlines of well-known US military bases, as well as other lesser-known and potentially sensitive sites - possibly because US soldiers and other personnel are using fitness trackers as they move around.
The data could provide information to someone who wants to attack or ambush troops, the Post reported.
Tobias Schneider, a security analyst, noted that it shows military sites in Syria and Iraq as well as the Madama base used by French forces in Niger.
"A lot of people are going to have to sit thru lectures come Monday morning," Schneider wrote, referring to soldiers likely to be taken to task for inadvertently revealing sensitive information while trying to keep in shape.
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(China Daily 01/30/2018 page11)
