US military troops can still be hit by targeted attacks despite disabling ad tracking on their devices and leaders aren't happy

Date:
Mon, 07 Sep 2026 15:35:00 +0000

Description:
Government-issued devices are safe - but what about private devices?

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter US military branches disable ad tracking on governmentissued devices after warning Location data from
personal devices still poses risks; past data remains for sale Senators urge DoD inspector general to review policies and stop servicemember data exposure More than 20 years ago, Jason Bourne was smashing mobile phones to prevent being tracked by his adversaries - and the US Department of Defense (DoD) has realized it should probably do something similar.

In May 2026, Senator Ron Wyden mailed the DoD (among others), informing the agency that foreign powers were using commercial location data to target US troops - and now, Wyden has shared the responses he received from the US
Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command, all of which have disabled advertising tracking across their government-issued devices, including Apple and Android smartphones, and Windows computers. Some branches did it earlier this year, while the Air Force allegedly concluded
the efforts in July 2026 - and while Wyden praised the move, he also
suggested it is not enough, and that further steps must be taken in order to protect US troops stationed abroad. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: Evaluating the leaked files We commend these service branches for implementing this cybersecurity defensive best practice on government
devices, Wyden and Senator Pat Harrigan wrote. However, recent reports regarding the continued availability of commercial location data originating from DoD facilities raise troubling questions.

Apparently, despite disabling these features and placing the troops out of reach of data brokers and similar commercial entities, the data that was gathered earlier remains available for sale, which still presents a risk. You may like US Secret Service personnel are putting the lives of Americas VIPs
at risk by refusing to use government-issued phones Developers are accidentally leaving on this critical data-invading setting when using third-party SDKs Millions of VPN users in the US are inadvertently putting their privacy at risk, Proton warns

The members suggested data could continue to be available for several
reasons, including that commercial data available originates from personal devices, not government phones, that are carried by servicemembers and government contractors, a report on Wydens website reads.

Wyden and Harrigan called on the DOD inspector general to examine commercial location data that DOD and other government agencies have already purchased
to determine why existing policies have not prevented servicemembers location data from being sold online, and to recommend policy changes to better
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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/us-military-troops-can-still-be-hit-by- targeted-attacks-despite-disabling-ad-tracking-on-their-devices-and-leaders-ar ent-happy


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