The US military has disabled advertising trackers on a range of phones and computers used by its personnel amid concerns that commercially available location data could be used to track and target American troops in the Middle East.
The US military has disabled advertising trackers on phones and computers used by its personnel amid concerns that commercially available location data could be used to track and target American troops in the Middle East.
Reuters separately reported the development after obtaining statements from US military officials. The move was reported by TechCrunch on Friday, citing a letter from US Senator Ron Wyden. Lawmakers want Pentagon investigation Senator Ron Wyden has been pressing the Pentagon over the potential security risks posed by commercially available location data. Wyden and Republican Representative Pat Harrigan are seeking a Pentagon investigation into whether the military has done enough to protect service members from the threat.
It also said advertising IDs had already been blocked on its Windows computers before 2021. On mobile devices, the Army said the feature was disabled by default from February 2026, Reuters reported.
The Air Force told Senator Wyden that it disabled advertising identifiers on computers and mobile phones about two months ago, according to Reuters. US Special Operations Command also said it had recently disabled the identifiers on its Windows devices. The Army told Reuters that advertising IDs on mobile devices had been disabled earlier this year.
