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U.S. service members deployed to combat zones have been targeted through the use of commercially available location data, highlighting how the global surveillance economy influences modern warfare. According to a letter shared with Reuters by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, Central Command indicated it had “received multiple threat reports concerning enemy exploitation of commercial location data to locate or monitor U.S. personnel in the area.” The message, dated April 14, did not reveal further details, but Central Command’s jurisdiction includes the Persian Gulf, where U.S. forces are engaged with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz.
This marks the first official acknowledgment that U.S. troops in active conflict zones have been targeted using civilian location data, lawmakers noted in a letter to the Pentagon. “Commercial location data can reveal where U.S. troops gather and their daily routines, which adversaries can exploit to launch missile, drone, or roadside bomb attacks, as well as for counterintelligence,” the letter warned. Wyden emphasized that it’s time to treat the adtech industry as a national security concern.
The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment, and lawmakers reported difficulty obtaining additional information from military officials regarding the targeting incidents.
Location data, predominantly used in digital advertising—a lucrative revenue source for many technology firms—is collected from smartphones and devices through apps or services, then sold to brokers who repackage and sell it through layered networks. While concerns over privacy and the sale of movement data have been publicly discussed for years, recent revelations have raised alarm over potential national security threats.
As early as 2016, a U.S. defense contractor used commercial location data to track special operations forces from U.S. bases to a sensitive staging area in Syria, a fact first reported by the Wall Street Journal. More recently, Wired and two German news outlets analyzed billions of geolocation points collected by data brokers to expose detailed movements around 11 U.S. military and intelligence sites in Germany.
Representatives from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Association of National Advertisers did not respond to requests for comment. The lawmakers’ letter pointed out that, given what the military knows about the commercial location data trade, there was a failure to act swiftly to safeguard personnel—such as disabling advertising IDs on military-issued devices, turning off location sharing on smartphones, or steering users away from browsers like Chrome toward more privacy-minded options.
North Carolina Republican and former U.S. Army Special Forces officer Pat Harrigan co-signed the letter, describing Chrome as “built to collect and share user data,” and warning that each day it remains on government devices is “another day we’re giving adversaries a weapon against our troops.”
In response, Google stated that Chrome offers “industry-leading security” and has long supported efforts for stronger privacy rules and protections against data brokers.
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