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Anyone Can Buy Data Tracking US Soldiers and Spies to Nuclear Vaults and Brothels in Germany
- US companies collecting digital advertising data are providing the world a cheap and reliable way to track the movements of American military and intelligence personnel overseas, from their homes to sensitive facilities.
- A joint investigation reveales that the unregulated sale of mobile location data poses a significant risk to the US military and the safety of its service members and their families overseas.
- Commercial data brokers are collecting sensitive information that could endanger the US military and intelligence or compromise personnel integrity, and are legally selling such information.
- The investigation found that mobile location data had the potential to identify individuals with access to sensitive areas, personal information on US nuclear weapons stored in Germany, and vulnerable areas and times for US service members.
- The US Defense Department and the National Security Agency declined to answer questions related to the investigation. Senator Ron Wyden expressed his concern that data broker industry poses a clear threat to national security and urged the incoming administration and Congress to act.
- Data collected by the report were purchased legally from commercial data brokers and were so precise that they could show the exact movements of American officials and personnel.
- The unregulated sale of mobile location data poses a threat to national security and could be used by adversarial nations to gain access to advertising data and exploit, manipulate, or coerce military personnel for purposes of espionage.
- Data brokers supply information to third-party software for targeted advertising, which includes location data. Experts say that low-level personnel can pose a risk. A system is only as secure as its weakest link.
- The scope of the location data broker industry is the problem and needs to be addressed by US Congress passing comprehensive legislation to ban or limit the sale of personal information by data brokers.
- US authorities have arrested suspects accused of offering or scouting for sensitive information about American military operations in Germany to foreign intelligence agencies.
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