On Friday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-N.C.) warned that the U.S. military’s decision to disable advertising trackers on government devices may not fully address the national security risks posed by commercially available location data and requested that the Department of Defense take more steps.
Congressmen Warn US Military’s Fix May Not Be Enough After Enemies Exploited Location Data to Target American Troops: 'Troubling Questions'
MarketDash
Wyden and Harrigan are questioning whether the U.S. military has done enough to protect troops from commercial location tracking.
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US Military Disables Advertising IDs
Letters shared by Wyden show that the Air Force disabled advertising identifiers on computers and mobile devices about two months ago. The U.S. Special Operations Command said it disabled the trackers on its Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Windows devices.
The Navy also told Wyden it had disabled advertising IDs, though it did not specify when the change was made.
In a statement to Reuters, which first reported on the letters, the Army said it disabled advertising IDs on mobile devices earlier this year.
The Army added that Windows computers had been covered since before 2021, while Android and Apple Inc. (AAPL) devices had the feature disabled by default since at least February 2026.
Location Data Creates Military Security Risk
The measures follow reports that commercially available location data had been used to target U.S. forces in the Middle East. Advertising identifiers, or MAIDs, can allow companies to connect activity across apps and help pinpoint a device’s location, Reuters reported.
Wyden and Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-N.C.) are now asking the Pentagon to investigate whether the military has adequately addressed the threat.
In a statement, Wyden said existing efforts "have not been effective" at eliminating the threat, while Harrigan warned that U.S. adversaries should not be able to "pull out a credit card" and obtain information that could help track American troops.
In the letter, the two stated, "We commend these service branches for implementing this cybersecurity defensive best practice on government devices. However, recent reports regarding the continued availability of commercial location data originating from DoD facilities raise troubling questions. One possibility is that certain DoD components have not, in fact, fully disabled the advertising IDs on government devices or only recently implemented these policies."
The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The two also requested the Department of Defense to take more steps. "We request that the DoD OIG examine location datasets already purchased by DoD and other federal agencies and use them to query DoD facilities and military bases and identify where DoD policies have not prevented the sale of location data. In particular, we request that you determine whether commercially available data is originating from personal phones," said the two in the letter.
Commercial Location Data Poses Security Risks
Location data gathered through mobile apps is often shared with third-party firms and data brokers, which can aggregate and sell the information.
Disabling advertising IDs can make individual devices harder to identify because their location data is no longer linked to a unique advertising identifier.
The U.S. government has acknowledged the security risks posed by commercial location data, while the U.S. intelligence community and FBI have confirmed purchasing such data for surveillance and intelligence purposes without a warrant, TechCrunch reported on Friday.
In July, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East warned that troops’ cellphone videos and social media posts could help Iran assess attacks on American bases, prompting consideration of tighter restrictions.
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