Exercise routes data shared online by soldiers can be utilized to identify overseas facilities.
A fitness tracking company Strava has disclosed the secret information about the location of US military bases and detective stations around the world. The features were released by Strava in its fitness tracking app, along with a data revelation map demonstrating all the activity tracked by its users. The app further allocated people to trace their exercise and share it with other people.
According to the map released in November 2017 by Strava, it illustrated every particular activity uploaded with in excess of 3 trillion individual GPS data points. The benefits of the fitness tracking app feature its utilization on a range of gadgets including Smartphones and fitness trackers. The users can make out popular running routes in the main cities. Moreover, they can also witness individuals who got themselves indulged in atypical exercise patterns.
The military analysts had also noticed that the map disclosed exceedingly sensitive information about the military personnel on active service (Strava users). An analyst with the Institute for United Conflict Analysts, Nathan Ruser, noticed the map and revealed that US military bases are clearly spotted in it. In the event, if soldiers make use of the app like ordinary individuals during their exercise, it could be very risky.
An analyst Tobias Schneider revealed that if US military bases light up the night in Syria, then some light indicators over recognized Russian positions can be seen sitting through lectures till the morning. In places like Afghanistan and Djibouti, the app users were mostly the foreign-based military personnel, denoting that that the military bases stand out intensely. In Afghanistan’s Helmand territory, one can easily distinguish the locations of forward operating military bases.
The tracking of the exercise routes of several soldiers revealed that zooming in on one of the larger military bases discloses its inside layout. The base is not detectable on the Google Maps or Apple’s Maps; however, it can be clearly noticed through the Strava fitness app. In the outer zones, the secret information of the bases can be easily gathered. For example, in a chart of Homey Airport, Nevada, Area 51(the US Air Force base) traces a single-handed cyclist taking a ride from the base by the side of the west edge of Groom Lak. This tracking has been marked on the map by a red line. On the other hand, RAF Mount Pleasant situated in the Falkland Islands is lit up intensely on the map. All these maps depicted the jogging organizations of the British personnel near to the Gull Island Pond and Lake Macphee.
In 2017, Strava released an updated version of the heat map formerly published in 2015. As per the updated version, it incorporated six times more data and altogether 1 billion activities from all Strava data. Their global heat map was stated to be largest and most striking dataset of its categories. Strava displayed that the new heat map was sufficient to make out the kite boarding in Mexico. Furthermore, one can be able to follow the directions of the Camino de Santiago (northern Spain) and also observe the sea direction of the Ironman triathalon in Kona, Hawaii.
Possibly the closest operational security issues noticed was the outline of the Burning Man festival (Nevadan desert). The company expresses gratitude to the cyclists and runners who utilized Starve fitness app to travel around the distinctive pentagonal pattern of Burning Man’s pop-up city that was clearly illustrated in the Heat map.
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