The US Central Command plans to refine its privacy policies after reports that the online fitness tracker Strava showing maps of people’s exercise habits across the globe could pose safety risks for security forces around the world.
Strava allows its users to share their running routes, and released a newly updated global heatmap last November. In major cities, it lights up popular running routes, but in less trafficked locales it can highlight areas with an unusually high concentration of connected, exercise-focused individuals–such as active military personnel serving overseas.
Nathan Ruser, a 20-year-old Australian student and analyst for the Institute for United Conflict Analysts, noted on Twitter on Saturday that the map made U.S. bases “clearly identifiable and mappable.”
Ruser tweeted, “If soldiers use the app like normal people do, by turning it on and tracking when they go to do exercise, it could be especially dangerous. This particular track looks like it logs a regular jogging route. I shouldn’t be able to establish any pattern of life info from this far away.”
In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for US Central Command said it is constantly working to “refine policies and procedures to address such challenges.”
“The coalition is in the process of implementing refined guidance on privacy settings for wireless technologies and applications, and such technologies are forbidden at certain coalition sites and during certain activities. We will not divulge specific tactics, techniques and procedures,” the statement continued.
Strava said it’s up to users to mark their data as private, according to the Guardian.
In a statement, Strava said, “Our global heatmap represents an aggregated and anonymized view of over a billion activities uploaded to our platform. It excludes activities that have been marked as private and user-defined privacy zones.
“We are committed to helping people better understand our settings to give them control over what they share.
“We take the safety of our community seriously and are committed to working with military and government officials to address sensitive areas that might appear.”
Photo courtesy Strava
