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By Sabeeh Zanair :
Commercially available location data collected from smartphones and digital applications has been used by adversaries to monitor and potentially target American military personnel deployed in conflict zones, according to newly disclosed correspondence between the US military and lawmakers.
The revelation emerged from a letter sent by Ron Wyden and a bipartisan group of legislators, who cited information provided by United States Central Command (Centcom). The military command acknowledged receiving multiple reports indicating that hostile actors had exploited commercially available location information to track or surveil US personnel operating in active theatres.
Centcom’s disclosure, made in correspondence dated April 14, represents the first official confirmation that commercially traded location data may have been used against American forces in a war-zone environment. While the military did not provide operational details, the command oversees a region stretching across the Middle East, including the Gulf, where tensions between the United States and Iran have remained high in recent months.
Lawmakers said the development highlights growing national security risks associated with the global data brokerage industry, which routinely collects, aggregates and sells information on users’ movements through smartphone applications and digital advertising networks.
In their letter to the Pentagon, legislators warned that location data can reveal where military personnel gather, live and operate, allowing adversaries to build detailed patterns of behaviour. Such information could potentially be used to support missile attacks, drone strikes, roadside bomb operations or intelligence-gathering activities.
Senator Wyden argued that the issue should no longer be viewed solely as a privacy concern but as a direct national security challenge. He urged US authorities to take stronger action against what he described as the unchecked trade in sensitive location information.
The Pentagon has not publicly commented on the reports. Lawmakers said efforts to obtain additional details from defence officials regarding the nature and extent of the targeting had so far produced limited responses.
The controversy has renewed scrutiny of the multibillion-dollar data brokerage industry, which underpins much of the global digital advertising market. Smartphones routinely collect location information through apps, websites and online services. That data is often sold to brokers, who compile and resell detailed datasets to commercial customers through extensive networks of intermediaries.
Privacy advocates have long warned that such information can expose highly sensitive details about individuals’ lives, movements and habits. However, recent investigations have increasingly highlighted the security implications of the practice.
Concerns are not new. In 2016, a US defence contractor reportedly demonstrated how commercially available location data could be used to track American special operations personnel travelling from bases in the United States to a sensitive military location in Syria.
More recently, journalists from Wired and two German media organisations analysed billions of location records obtained from a data broker and identified movements around multiple US military and intelligence facilities in Germany, illustrating how easily commercially available data can reveal operational patterns.
The lawmakers’ letter criticised what they described as a slow response by defence authorities despite years of warnings about the risks. They urged the Pentagon to adopt stronger safeguards, including disabling advertising identifiers on government-issued devices, automatically restricting location-sharing functions in operational areas and encouraging personnel to use more privacy-focused digital tools.
Among those raising concerns was Pat Harrigan, who argued that widely used internet browsers and digital platforms are designed around extensive data collection practices that can inadvertently expose sensitive information.
The comments also reignited debate over the role of major technology companies in the collection and monetisation of user data. Responding to criticism, Google said its Chrome browser incorporates strong security protections and reiterated its support for tighter regulations governing data brokers and the wider location-data marketplace.
The disclosure comes at a time when militaries worldwide are increasingly confronting the security implications of digital technology. Defence analysts note that smartphones, wearable devices and online applications have transformed modern intelligence gathering, creating new vulnerabilities that can be exploited far beyond traditional battlefields.
As governments continue to rely on digital tools for communication and operations, the latest warnings are likely to intensify calls for stricter controls on the commercial trade in location data and greater protection for military personnel operating in sensitive environments.
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