A Conservative MP has said it “beggars belief” that UK military personnel have revealed their locations inside sensitive military bases via the Strava exercise app.
Ben Obese-Jecty, a former army officer, has criticised what he regards as the potential threat from Britain’s adversaries, who might discover personal details via the tracking platform.
It is reported nearly 520 people working at some of the UK’s most sensitive sites have shared their activity publicly on the app, according to The i Paper.
Mr Obese-Jecty, who represents Huntingdon, wrote on X: “I stopped using Strava when I became an MP and I locked down my profile long before that. The app has numerous features to enable you to keep your data private.
“It beggars belief that our armed forces don’t have a grip of this given the current, and very real, threat posed by sub-threshold activity from our adversaries.”
Using GPS, the Strava app tracks certain activities, like running and cycling, and allows users to share the routes they have taken.
The newspaper found that, since January, 110 people have used Strava while running at the Faslane naval base on the Clyde, home of the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
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It reported that one route was logged within the site’s restricted area and claimed the information could be used to reveal the identity of the specific nuclear submarine to which the user was assigned.
But the Ministry of Defence has cast doubt on the potential threat. A spokesperson said the use of fitness apps, such as Strava, is not an operational threat. It added the locations of bases are already in the public domain.
It said military personnel would continue to be given security guidance on the use of apps with GPS tracking features.
“We take the security of our personnel very seriously and keep guidance for them under constant review,” a spokesperson said.
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Personnel stationed at overseas bases, including RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, both of which have played a role in America’s military campaign against Iran, were also identifiable through the app, the paper found.
Both bases have been targeted by Iran in retaliation for the US-Israeli war against it.
In March, the French newspaper, Le Monde, reported that a French naval officer’s run around the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was shared on Strava, revealing the location of the ship in the Mediterranean amid the Iran conflict.
