"U.S.

[wchr@mastodon.social]

"U.S. forces deployed to war zones have ​been targeted using commercially available location data"

Just like I, @johnnyryan and others warned.

US Senator Wyden says it's time to "start treating the adtech industry as a national security threat". Agreed.
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/pentagon-says-us-military-personnel-are-reportedly-being-targeted-using-location-2026-05-28/

[domasla@social.tchncs.de]

@wchr @johnnyryan
...and a personal threat to you, to me, to everyone.

[_ryekdarkener_@mastodon.social]

@wchr @johnnyryan

So at least one senator has taken notice? Finally?

[wchr@mastodon.social]

Here's our 2023 report on how "data about American defense personnel and political leaders flows to foreign states and non-state actors":
https://www.iccl.ie/digital-data/americas-hidden-security-crisis/

In a letter, Wyden and other congress members write that the DoD "has not taken basic steps to protect U.S. military personnel from the serious … threat posed by the collection and sale of personal information". Instead, it has "encouraged the growth of this industry by buying location data" from data brokers:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28168364-ron-wydens-may-28-2026-letter-to-the-department-of-defense/

[wchr@mastodon.social]

Their letter is quite explicit about Apple, Google and Chrome:

- Both Apple iOS and Google Android were "designed" to "assign a unique tracking number to each smartphone for use by the advertising industry and data brokers".

- Google Chrome, as a web browser that is "designed to facilitate data collection", must be removed from all US military devices.

[benben@chaos.social]

@wchr German @netzpolitik_feed has quite an extensive analyses (with several international partners) about the markets where these kind of data are sold. Also on the security implication of such data. Keyword "databroker files"…

[mahryekuh@hachyderm.io]

@wchr @johnnyryan You’d think they’d have taken a more serious look at data risks after the incident where fitness tracker data exposed a military based, years ago, but sure.

[dalias@hachyderm.io]

@wchr I mean that sounds ok, but they should really just be treating the data brokers as military targets and dealing with them as such.

[wollman@mastodon.social]

@_RyekDarkener_ There are very few Senators who even know which end of a smartphone to hold to their ear.

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@wchr @johnnyryan well, when some of us were saying, 'everyone's data', we weren't sprinkling magic camouflage dust on our troops.

We said EVERYONE.

Those bureaucratic ninnies.

[dain@hachyderm.io]

@wchr @johnnyryan until a systemic fix is put in place, do you have any reliable sources on how to browse safely preventing this data capture? For example, I'm using Firefox with Privacy Badger and Adguard on a stock Pixel phone, is that enough or would I need to flash a custom ROM? I'm not particularly concerned about 100% watertight protection personally, but would be good to get an idea what's a reasonable level of protection. Looks like for some people this knowledge would be a matter of life and death though...

[botally54@mastodon.social]

@wchr @johnnyryan I suppose that random AI Mission Assignment is probably not that much worse than a Hegseth BrainFart.