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Anyone Can Buy Data Tracking US Soldiers and Spies to Nuclear Vaults and Brothels in Germany
More than 3 billion phone coordinates collected by a US data broker expose the detailed movements of US military and intelligence workers in Germany—and the Pentagon is powerless to stop it.
A joint investigation by WIRED, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), and Netzpolitik.org reveals that US companies legally collecting digital advertising data are also providing the world a cheap and reliable way to track the movements of American military and intelligence personnel overseas, from their homes and their children’s schools to hardened aircraft shelters within an airbase where US nuclear weapons are believed to be stored. In total, our analysis revealed granular location data from up to 12,313 devices that appeared to spend time at or near at least 11 military and intelligence sites, potentially exposing crucial details like entry points, security practices, and guard schedules—information that, in the hands of hostile foreign governments or terrorists, could be deadly. This conclusion closely mirrors the observations of Chief Justice John Roberts of the US Supreme Court, who in landmark privacy cases within the past decade described cell phones as being a “pervasive and insistent part of daily life” and that owning one was “indispensable to participation in modern society.”
Or read this on Wired
