US troops can still be tracked by purchased location data, and Congress wants to know why
- ID
- 21931
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 06 Sep 2026, 9:06 AM
- Fetched
- 06 Sep 2026, 9:24 AM
- Provider
- The Register
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.theregister.com/public-sector/2026/09/06/us-troops-can-still-be-tracked-by-purchased-location-data-and-congress-wants-to-know-why/5294652
- Source URL
- https://www.theregister.com/headlines.atom
Summary
- Score
- 2.5
- Created
- 06 Sep 2026, 9:25 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developers
What happened
US Senator Ron Wyden and Rep. Pat Harrigan have asked the DoD Inspector General to investigate why commercial location data from US military personnel is still available for purchase despite policies to disable advertising identifiers on government-issued devices. The Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command have disabled ad IDs on government devices, but location data tied to DoD facilities continues to surface, possibly due to personal devices brought into facilities.
Why it matters
If you ship mobile apps with ad SDKs or location collection, this is a concrete example of how disabling advertising identifiers alone does not stop location data leakage — personal devices and other SDK pathways still expose users. Consider whether your app's data collection and resale practices could create similar exposure for sensitive user populations, and whether disabling ad IDs is sufficient for your privacy posture.
Discussion angle
The gap between 'we disabled ad IDs' and 'location data still leaks' is a useful case study for any developer relying on ad SDK opt-outs as a privacy control — what other pathways in your app stack still exfiltrate location?