What! There’s no way Trump uses Strava.
reads article
Oh, the bodyguards… that makes sense and is kinda smart to investigate.
Why would they let bodyguards use tracking apps? Are we really that bad at opsec?
Trump is such an incompetent clown that he has a comedian thrash on US citizens in a US territory as a bigoted racist warm up act for his rallies. What do you think.
Trump is not responsible for his security though, secret service is. Would think that those guys would know to not wear random trackers with them
Pretty sure the secret service is responsible for protecting Trump. The rest of his campaign security is the job of the campaign, which is famously cheap.
And it’s in the Secret Service’s interest to have certain rules for any additional security operating an an event they’re responsible for protecting. That’s literally their job…
Yes but thr farther they get from the protected the less oversight.
I guess that depends on the reason they’re further from the VIP. If it’s because they’re prepping for a visit, it should have just as much oversight as if they’re with the individual. If they’re merely doing mundane work (say, cleaning up after a visit), then sure, allow some leeway. But in general, if they’re on the clock, they shouldn’t have any trackers outside of ones issued for the purposes of their job.
I’m not sure if it’s still valid, but there was that whole debacle where he fired every secret service agent except for ones that backed him politically.
Would you think those guys would know to do something about a dude on a roof with a rifle?
Maybe, having worked closely enough with Trump to have an even better idea of who he is than most, it was a choice rather than incompetence.
What does that have to do with the French newspaper Le Monde?
You think the rest of the world doesn’t follow the news when a lunatic is in the run with an actual chance of getting elected?
Turns out we have journalists, in France!I don’t know. I don’t read Le Monde.
The article noted that the agents can’t use their personal devices while on duty but of course they can while they are off duty. It mentioned that one of the guards took a jog while off duty, but that jog was from the hotel the President was staying at.
Still the agents mistake.
They could set the start/finish area to be masked, they could set their run info as private, they could have just the run stats (but no GPS) shared, etc.
This isn’t a strava issue, just Secret Service Agents being bad about Secrets when doing their Service.
Why would they let bodyguards use tracking apps? Are we really that bad at opsec?
Wrong question LOL. Better ask:
Are we really that bad at allowing tracking?
Yes you are. And once the data is collected, people are going to do things with the data.
It goes both ways. Companies are able to track way more data than they should be able to and users are bad at avoiding or even being aware of it, including many who should have security concerns at the top of their mind.
It makes sense for an app like Strava to track location, because that’s literally its purpose. It doesn’t make sense for a bodyguard to be using an app like Strava.
I’d prefer if that information was stored locally and wasn’t usable by anyone at Strava to just look up where someone is and/or has been.
Same, but Strava is literally a social media app where you’re comparing your routes to other peoples’ routes. I used to use it because I liked tracking personal progress, but ended up bailing after a few months because I really don’t want any of the social nonsense.
That said, Strava isn’t the one that should be punished/regulated here, they’re just offering a service people find value in. The real ones at fault are the bodyguards, who should absolutely know better and be much more careful about electronic equipment they and anyone involved carries.
Ah, I haven’t used it so didn’t realize there was a social aspect to it, that makes sense, though I don’t think the social nonsense is worth giving that kind of data to the parent company. Though I suppose the leaks in this case were just from people looking up the bodyguards on the service? Is there an option to set your profile to private?
But yeah, I’d agree that anyone who doesn’t want their location to be shared shouldn’t be using that, especially when there’s security concerns.
Though just carrying a cell phone at all gives some people access to your full location information, if they care to track it.
Yup
Yes, and we’re in denial about it.
Hmm, so he’s not a fitness buff… Maybe we could track him by looking at state library databases and seeing when and where he has most recently checked out library books??
The military had a similar problem with fitness apps for a while.
https://www.wired.com/story/strava-heat-map-military-bases-fitness-trackers-privacy/
I used this exact thing as a teaching aid when I taught the ROTC opsec lesson. Also scared a couple kids pale when I told them Snapchat keeps a 6-month record of everything you send
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hotdog
That app probably
Only 6 months? Honestly I’m surprised it’s so short of time frame.
I guess to be more specific, you can request 6 months of your data
Ah that makes more sense
They probably horde that data like a Dragon hordes gold
The NSA has entire datacenters just to store your data.
Never know what might come in handy.
Some science magazines guessed something big was going on when many of their subscribers changed the delivery address to New Mexico.
They were working on the Manhattan Project.
Unlike this, fitness apps don’t require external connectivity or computing resources not satisfied by today’s handheld devices.
I find this to be a breakdown of training, because the training was pretty clear years ago when I had clearance with the navy that we were never to use apps like this that could disclose location, not just while on-duty or on base, but at any time that our location could be given away. We were specifically not allowed to have Fitbits or other smart watches (Fitbit was the big one at the time) that could share location and any apps that wanted to know our location (yes, on our personal phones) needed to be cleared by IT because we were people that had been granted clearance and therefore could not give away critical location information.
The big scandal that got a lot of people into trouble was Pokemon Go, because not only did it use location, but I guess it used camera too? I didn’t know, I didn’t play it, but using cameras on base was a HUGE no-no, so using an app that shared location AND picture during your lunch break broke the brains of the COs.
It seems so weird to me that this is something that is so widespread right now. I didn’t work for the navy anymore and haven’t in a while, but I still follow the basic safety protocols about not sharing sensitive information.
Politicians when they realize the commercialized espionage they’ve allowed also applies to them:
Just like Angela Merkel’s upset remark “you don’t spy on your friends”.
Well yes, dear Angela, they spy on everyone. And it’s telling that the outrage came only because she was personally affected. The peasants’ data and personal lives are fair game.
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Secret service leta them use normie phones loaded with normie apps?
No. At least not while they were on duty.
But they used their device while off-duty, but at the same hotel they were at.
I still don’t get why Strava activities are public by default and why they do not make their users aware of it. I remember having to rummage through the settings to make activities private by default.
I am less surprised that the information is out there than I am that the bodyguards of such people are allowed to either bring along their personal devices or install random crap from the public app stores on their work devices.
Crazy. What’s next? Can they track us with our phones too? 🤯
Trump’s tracking: Golf, golf, McDs, court, golf, golf, court, Mcds, McDs, McDs, golf…
There’s no way Trump’s usual McDs is in person
He has staff procure it for him
I have a sports watch and the corresponding fitness app. I can confirm. “Sitting on one’s ass at the restaurant” is not a fitness activity. HOWEVER. Some of my activities (e.g. walks) do terminate near fast food jonts. …I dread what that kind of data analysis would yield on a major political figure.
The article said that they track the movements of bodyguards. I doubt Trump or Biden use anything remotely related to fitness. Obama might have.
You’d think the secret service were better at opsec than random soldiers getting their helicopters blown up.
I’ve intuited, maybe correctly, the service has become changed over the years and is not what it once was. Stuff like this makes me think that maybe my armchair analysis is correct
Considering Trump almost got his head blown off because they let a guy sit on a roof with a rifle at a political rally for 5 minutes… that’s not a stretch.
No, people have always been shit at stuff like this.
You won’t need Strava to know Joe’s at the ice cream parlour. Pffffff.
What is this “fitness” they speak of? It seems to be from overseas. Could someone explain this to an American like me?
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Don’t be coy, tell us what you think we should be using it for.
So I can get close enough to airdrop photos of my penis to the president of the United States. What did you think I was going to use it for?
For saying hi of course c:
Oh my god who cares.
I can imagine the secret service will.
And hopefully does something about. Disciplinary for the poor OPSEC and/or better resources to avoid it and/or better laws to stop this unfettered data collection and/or better training to avoid it in the future. Here’s hoping. Holds breath
