Fitbit data shows where Americans tend to be. That is “interesting” in New York City but dangerous in Afghanistan.
Fitbit data shows where Americans tend to be. That is “interesting” in New York City but dangerous in Afghanistan.
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10 thoughts on “Fitbit data shows where Americans tend to be. That is “interesting” in New York City but dangerous in Afghanistan.”
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This only happens if you explicitly start an exercise with Strava. Regular Fitbit tracking doesn’t do this at all. But yeah, these folks need a lesson in operational security, they shouldn’t be using GPS-tracking apps on military bases overseas.
It’s just meta-data…
In any case, it’s not U.S. soldiers revealing information. It’s Strava.
Paul Hosking Technically, the soldiers could opt out of the data sharing, though.
Lars Fosdal was there a reasonable expectation that Strava would make public heat maps of their collective footsteps?
Paul Hosking From the TOS:
strava.com – Strava Terms of Service
“The Services may provide you with the option of making certain Content that you submit to the Services as private or available only to select users of the Services. If, upon submission of Content to the Services, you initially elect to mark such Content as private or available for a limited group of members, Strava will maintain the privacy of such Content in accordance with your election. However, if you do not elect to mark your Content as private or available for a limited group of members, or later change such designation to allow such Content to be made publicly available, you are responsible for the public nature of the content. Please review our Privacy Policy for more information on how to manage your privacy settings.”
Paul Hosking I think most reasonable people would expect their footsteps not to become part of a public map, but anyone operating on a military base should be trained in OpSec, and know that transmitting your GPS location constantly to a Silicon Valley company is not good OpSec.
Lars Fosdal good point. I can certainly see the possibilities while giving that a quick once-over. But I bet relatively few do.
Paul Hosking True that. “Ain’t nobody got time for reading no TOS” 😛
Jake Weisz OpSec fail to be sure. Which raises the issue that the opsec game is expanding very quickly in many directions.
Jake Weisz I think they will take as much data as they can get based on the ToS, so yes… Maps of paths taken, heart rates at each step, …