Pentagon · U.S. · Android · The Guardian Technology
US military disables ad trackers on troops’ phones amid security fears
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US military officials say they have disabled advertising trackers on a range of phones and computers, according to letters released on Friday by the US senator Ron Wyden and statements given to Reuters.
Key facts
- The army said that advertising IDs had been blocked on Windows computers “since before 2021” but that Android and Apple mobile devices had only had it disabled by default “since at least February
- US Special Operations Command said in a separate letter that it had “recently” disabled them on its Windows devices
- Zach Edwards, co-founder of the privacy ad tech company DecryptAds, said that efforts to disable MAID on military-operated devices were “definitely a positive thing
- US military officials say they have disabled advertising trackers on a range of phones and computers, according to letters released on Friday by the US senator Ron Wyden and statements given
Summary
The development follows reports that commercially available location data had been used to target American forces in the Middle East. The air force told Wyden it disabled the advertising identifiers on computers and mobile phones two months ago. Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has pressed the Pentagon on the issue for months. The disclosures highlight a growing national security concern: that location data collected by the advertising industry and sold by data brokers, companies that collate and resell personal data, can be used to track and target military personnel deployed to war zones.