France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app (lemonde.fr)

by MrDresden 533 comments 649 points
Read article View on HN

533 comments

[−] nanoparticle 57d ago
About 3 years ago, a former russian submarine commander accused of a missile attack in Ukraine that killed 23 civilians, was shot and killed, apparently after his route was tracked via Strava

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/11/europe/russian-submarine-...

https://gijn.org/stories/investigations-using-strava-fitness...

[−] teiferer 56d ago
This provides a great cover for intelligence agencies to avoid disclosing their actual data source. Just point to Strava and hand-wave a little. Nobody will suspect that you actually had an in via a close associate of the target.
[−] applfanboysbgon 56d ago
Crazy to die because you used a jogging app. Really goes to show the value of privacy. And, you know, not committing war crimes that would make people want to hunt you down and kill you. Either or.
[−] wolvoleo 56d ago
Only goes to show how dangerous sport is! :)
[−] jandrewrogers 57d ago
This is a common problem across militaries. It is difficult to stop soldiers from leaking their location if they have access to mobile phones and the Internet. Individual cases are usually a combination of naïveté, ignorance, and an unwillingness to be inconvenienced.

It still happens in Ukraine, where immediate risk to life and limb is much more severe than this case.