US Army Disrupts Ad-Tracking Tools Amid Targeting Concerns - Sarmad
U.S. military officials said they disabled advertising tracking tools on a number of mobile phones and computers, according to messages posted by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden and statements he made to Reuters. This development follows reports that commercial location data was used to target U.S. forces in the Middle East.
The U.S. Air Force informed Senator Wyden that it disabled advertising identifiers on computers and mobile phones two months ago.
U.S. Special Operations Command stated in a separate message that it had recently disabled them on its Windows-based devices.
The U.S. Army told Reuters that advertising identifiers associated with mobile devices had been disabled earlier this year.
Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, has been demanding answers from the U.S. Department of Defense (the Pentagon) on this issue for several months.
This information highlights growing national security concerns that location data collected and sold by the advertising industry and data brokerage firms—companies that aggregate personal data and resell it—could be used to track and target military personnel deployed in war zones.
The Air Force and Special Operations Command declined to provide further comments. Similar messages from the Army and Navy to Wyden indicated that they had disabled advertising identifiers on military devices, without specifying when these restrictions were imposed.
The U.S. Army stated in a release that advertising tracking tools had been prohibited on Windows-based computers since before 2021, while they were not automatically disabled on Android and Apple devices until at least February 2026.
These efforts aim to reduce location data generated by smartphones at a time when military officials are considering imposing stricter restrictions on the general use of mobile phones.
In July, Reuters reported that some military personnel deployed in the Middle East might be required to hand over their phones amid concerns that video clips they post online could help Iran target U.S. bases in the region.
Senator Wyden and Republican Representative Pat Harrigan of North Carolina sent a letter to the Pentagon, calling for an investigation into whether the military has taken sufficient measures to address risks arising from the location data trade. The letter included updates from various branches of the armed forces regarding efforts to disable advertising identifiers on military devices.
