# "Fitness tracking app Strava gives away location of secret US army bases" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 29, 2018, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701 "2018-01-29T03:15:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/1 "2018-01-29T03:15:02Z")
Well, dang. :smack: I guess it’s a good thing somebody noticed this. > [@](#): > > Sensitive information about the location and staffing of military bases and spy outposts around the world has been revealed by a fitness tracking company. > > The details were released by Strava in a data visualisation map that shows all the activity tracked by users of its app, which allows people to record their exercise and share it with others. > > The map, released in November 2017, shows every single activity ever uploaded to Strava – more than 3 trillion individual GPS data points, according to the company. The app can be used on various devices including smartphones and fitness trackers like Fitbit to see popular running routes in major cities, or spot individuals in more remote areas who have unusual exercise patterns. > > However, over the weekend military analysts noticed that the map is also detailed enough that it potentially gives away extremely sensitive information about a subset of Strava users: military personnel on active service. > … > In locations like Afghanistan, Djibouti and Syria, the users of Strava seem to be almost exclusively foreign military personnel, meaning that bases stand out brightly. In Helmand province, Afghanistan, for instance, the locations of forward operating bases can be clearly seen, glowing white against the black map. > … [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracking-app-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases) There are some interesting pictures with the article. ---
**Author:** ![Luciano700](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Luciano700](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luciano700)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/2 "2018-01-29T03:51:24Z")
First Pokemon Go! Now this? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/3 "2018-01-29T04:33:56Z")
> [@Luciano700](#): > > First Pokemon Go! Now this? Okay _this_ comment I respect! I was going for a rhyme based on “loose lips sink ships” but came up with nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/4 "2018-01-29T05:30:16Z")
I thought that this was a well known vulnerability. Here in the states bike thieves would break into the garages where Strava indicated there were likely high end bikes. In fact, riders who set Strava records were considered to have the nicest bikes. But that Strava ‘heat map’ is very interesting to look at. I’ve found some places near me that I didn’t know people were riding bikes at. I’ll be visiting them soon. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/5 "2018-01-29T06:19:50Z")
You think the Russians don’t already know those bases are there? Or the Taliban? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/6 "2018-01-29T07:09:25Z")
Anyone with half a brain sets a zone of privacy around their house on Strava so the exact position isn’t known. I’d be interested to know if the heatmap included private rides? That would indeed be a balls-up by Strava. ---
**Author:** ![BobBitchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/7 "2018-01-29T07:52:13Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > Anyone with half a brain sets a zone of privacy around their house on Strava so the exact position isn’t known. 😃 You have more faith in people than I do. I feel we are a nation of people who’s VCR’s fashed 12:00, 12:00, 12:00 for a decade and a half.:rolleyes: My friend’s son asked me the what time it was, I held out my arm (wrist watch) he looked at it and said “That’s cool…so what time is it?”:smack: I don’t dare show him a magnetic compass. ( It’s like GPS for older people kid) Yeah I know, I wandered a bit off topic, but don’t worry I’ll forgive me.😃 ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/8 "2018-01-29T08:43:51Z")
> [@Luciano700](#): > > First Pokemon Go! Now this? There’s a conspiracy theory that this was the point of Pokemon Go in the first place. The founder of the company that made the game has business ties to [In-Q-Tel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Q-Tel) which is a venture capital funded by the government, which invests in technologies they believe the intelligence agencies might find useful. By having users run around taking geotagged pictures all over the place, they could use the game to create street-level maps of the world, like Google Street View but it wouldn’t be tied to roads. And they could have users perform surveillance on a person or a location by spawning valuable Pokemons in the vicinity. [http://blackbag.gawker.com/pokemon-go-is-a-government-surveillance-psyop-conspirac-1783461240](http://blackbag.gawker.com/pokemon-go-is-a-government-surveillance-psyop-conspirac-1783461240) ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/9 "2018-01-29T09:29:01Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Okay _this_ comment I respect! > > I was going for a rhyme based on “loose lips sink ships” but came up with nothing. Stray apps kill chaps. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/10 "2018-01-29T10:15:30Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > You think the Russians don’t already know those bases are there? Or the Taliban? It sounds like the level of detail being captured could actually be leveraged to get information about the layout and organisational structure of the bases, not just their location. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/11 "2018-01-29T13:20:57Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Okay _this_ comment I respect! > > I was going for a rhyme based on “loose lips sink ships” but came up with nothing. > > > [@Penfeather](#): > > > > Stray apps kill chaps. Loose hips save ships. CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/12 "2018-01-29T13:25:31Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > It sounds like the level of detail being captured could actually be leveraged to get information about the layout and organisational structure of the bases, not just their location. Clearly, that is the main concern. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/13 "2018-01-29T20:55:29Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > Anyone with half a brain sets a zone of privacy around their house on Strava so the exact position isn’t known. And people with 3/4 of a brain don’t record their private info on the web in the first place. Unless you need to prove to someone that you biked/hiked/ran a specific path, I don’t see the point. An aggregated total of miles/minutes by hour/day/week, etc. I can understand, but storing the actual route baffles me. Of course, I’m not a runner or biker. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/14 "2018-01-29T22:36:33Z")
Toned hips reveal blips. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/15 "2018-01-29T22:50:23Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > And people with 3/4 of a brain don’t record their private info on the web in the first place. Unless you need to prove to someone that you biked/hiked/ran a specific path, I don’t see the point. An aggregated total of miles/minutes by hour/day/week, etc. I can understand, but storing the actual route baffles me. Of course, I’m not a runner or biker. Except that even intelligent people often use default settings on their devices for convenience. And even if you make the effort to secure your personal data, there is little that prevents companies from [using and selling the aggregate data](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/are-fitbit-nike-and-garmin-selling-your-personal-fitness-data/) freely, which even without personally identifiable information could be used along with correlating information to ‘back out’ the owner. Regardless, data of this kind can be used by a neferious actor to determine movement patterns and discern confidential information. > [@Johanna](#): > > Toned hips reveal blips. _golf clap_ Stranger ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/16 "2018-01-29T23:54:46Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > It sounds like the level of detail being captured could actually be leveraged to get information about the layout and organisational structure of the bases, not just their location. Plus, information about where the military train or exercise. My understanding is that the privacy settings are “opt out” so that the default is you allow the company to release your data. And some analyst on NPR was explaining that it wasn’t so trivial to figure out how to adjust the privacy settings appropriately. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/17 "2018-01-29T23:57:50Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > And people with 3/4 of a brain don’t record their private info on the web in the first place. Unless you need to prove to someone that you biked/hiked/ran a specific path, I don’t see the point. An aggregated total of miles/minutes by hour/day/week, etc. I can understand, but storing the actual route baffles me. Of course, I’m not a runner or biker. It’s partly an online community, even if you only connect with a few friends. It is also a way to compete with others. Segments of road are tracked and times recorded. A cyclist or runner can see how they fair against themselves, their friends, and the fastest ever. It is great motivation for improving your fitness. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/18 "2018-01-30T00:01:54Z")
Reading further I see that the published heat map is only of public activities and excludes private activities and zones. The security breach has come from the military personnel, not Strava. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/19 "2018-01-30T00:06:38Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Plus, information about where the military train or exercise. My understanding is that the privacy settings are “opt out” so that the default is you allow the company to release your data. And some analyst on NPR was explaining that it wasn’t so trivial to figure out how to adjust the privacy settings appropriately. Let’s see now, I open my phone app, go to settings, privacy, tick the “private by default” option. Seems trivial to me but perhaps I’m some kind of genius. Should privacy be opt out rather than opt in? Possibly. On the other hand people need to take some responsibility for themselves and not rely on the rest of the world to hold their hand. Private by default is a bit pointless really, the whole point of the app is to share your activities with other users. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701/20 "2018-01-30T00:07:00Z")
The latest reporting I read points out that a close look at the Afghan data shows the most popular routes _between_ the various sites. While the sites themselves are interesting, the actual routes and the likelihood that soldiers will be traveling on them is significantly more serious. The app records whether the user is traveling by vehicle. Sigh. Strava is rather helplessly pointing out that if people would just read the instructions they could have turned off the data collection in specific areas. A bunch of people will be getting an urgent security briefing about now… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fitness-tracking-app-strava-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases/807701.md?page=2)