Last November, GPS tracking company Strava posted a Global Heat Map containing data on the locations and movements of its 27 million users, many who own fitness trackers such as Fitbits. Recently it was discovered that this map also includes information about the location and activity of soldiers at US military bases who wear fitness trackers.
In 2003, the Pentagon, hoping to battle obesity, encouraged soldiers to use Fitbits. However, this clearly has done more harm than good. Anyone who wants to attack US troops can simply look at the activity patterns to find out where military bases are, and more specifically, where huge groups of soldiers are likely to be. Strava apps and devices have an option to turn off the data transmission service, but the US military obviously neglected this, a mistake that leaves them vulnerable. Right now, the US is looking into implications this map will have, but they haven’t responded to what the current regulations on fitness-tracking apps are.
I am shocked that this oversight happened. Even if the data transmission is turned off, I don’t believe that the soldiers should continue using Fitbits. It is not clear how secure Strava is, or how this information is kept private. Moreover, logging data on amount of exercise is not worth the risk of some enemy hacking into the activity patterns of the soldiers. Technology’s role continues to increase in the world, and if something as insignificant as a Fitbit can cause so much danger, the US military needs to be more considerate of the consequences of using some equipment/technology.
Should soldiers continue using fitness trackers, even if the tracking function is off? Do you think that the supervisor, or whoever encouraged the use of Fitbits, should be punished? (very broad, but) How do you think the US military should respond to this event?
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8 comments:
I don't think this is a very big deal. Let's just use a hypothetical example here: If North Korea were to, for some reason, decide to target a military base in the US, they might as well use the biggest bomb/missile they can because from that distance, using a missile that targeted small areas would be very uneconomical and inefficient. Basically, it would be a very stupid decision on their part. Adding on to the reality check, so what? Who realistically is going to sort through loads of fitbit data to target the exact location and jogging patterns of US soldiers? And, not trying to be over-patriotic or anything, but has no one come to the understanding that when you target US troops, the US comes back bigger and harder?? I just think this whole thing is pretty redundant. It doesn't really matter. It basically just reassures anyone who cares that a military base actually contains troops or not.
I think it would be wise for them to stop using Fitbits. I honestly see no reason why the military should continue using technology that they know would leave them vulnerable. I don't think that those who hold responsibility for allowing soldiers to use Fitbits should be punished, however, considering that they are in the military, they should have at least been a little cautious over the use of GPS technology and how easily exploitable it could be. This also poses a question over the extent of how safe the general public actually is from hackers. If soldiers can be easily tracked by wearing this simple device, then what can the government do to protect both its citizens and its soldiers from these technology exploits?
Soldiers really shouldn't be using GPS enabled devices. To respond to Theo's point, the concern isn't really about another country, but a lone wolf terrorist. If they know where soldiers march a lot, they could wait out at that spot.
In the end, public map data isn't that big of a security threat. But out of any organization, the U.S. military is probably the organization that needs total lockdown the most. It seems reasonable enough to ask soldiers not to have gps devices on them, and to ask strava to remove U.S. military bases out of their database.
I agree with Rob; it was probably a bad idea to give deployed soldiers GPS devices. I'm not qualified at all to weigh on the military discipline system, and frankly I don't think civilians understand the military court system enough to make informed judgments.
I'll leave decisions of punishment and security to those in the military who are qualified.
I do not believe that people who encouraged this behavior should be punished. They were making the best decision they could with the information they had at the time. However, I think it would be wise for them to stop using Fitbits, or at least to use Fitbits that have been modified to only send information to a government server.
I would like to disagree with what Theo said about "so what?" as it may sound absurd to us to go through fitbit data, but now that people know that the information is available, there are going to be some who decide to look through it. And as Bobby said, there are definitely individuals who will use this information to target them. The military bases are supposed to be hidden for a reason.
Given the general security of the armed forces, I am surprised that this even happened. And even though it isn't the biggest deal ever. usually they are better about this kind of thing. After learning this I'm sure the military will cease to use fitbits and devices that have GPS tracking and become more careful in the future. I also think that whoever suggested this should not be punished because they never had any intent to put out sensitive information on troop location, they just wanted to encourage fitness. Additionally this isn't the hugest deal ever, Like Theo said, other nations aren't going to be targeting these places of operations, and no sensible leader would ever target these places individually because of what a waste it would be. Ultimately I think the military should have soldiers try to stop using fitbits, and have them just get fit on their own, and also maybe some measures taken to ensure that this won't happen again.
As some people have said above, I think this issue has been a little exaggerated. The only solution this issue really requires is stopping the data transmission from the FitBits and other GPS tracking devices. Some soldiers have phones that also track GPS location. The only thing that needs to happen is using a similar policy on fitness trackers and smart watches.
There's plenty of good analog ways to track soldiers' fitness without using the FitBits. As for accountability the unit CO can see to that. And even if those options weren't viable, I'm sure that must be the technology to hide or stop GPS transmissions from the FitBits.
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