Macrons bodyguards show his location by sharing Strava data The Register

pThe French equivalent of the US Secret Service may have been letting their guard down as an investigation showed they are easily trackable via the fitness app StravappAn investigation by Le Monde has shown that members of the Security Group for the Presidency of the Republic GSPR have been openly displaying their location on the popular software during their workout sessions Since they travel with President Emmanuel Macron this makes it fairly easy to work out his location A dozen of his bodyguards were leaking key information this wayppMacrons security guards record and publish their runs on the platform But theres a problem They are sharing geolocalized information publicly the newspaper reportsppIn other words Macrons bodyguards are unknowingly sharing their locations online both personal and professional This security flaw means its possible to track the French presidents bodyguards that is Macrons hotels meeting rooms and trips can be tracked through this appppMore disclosures are promised later but it appears that both President Biden and Russias Vladimir Putin are also vulnerable to this kind of tracking In the latter case it would be interesting if someone say a Ukrainian drone operator got hold of such informationppThis isnt the first time Strava users have been caught leaking information in this way In 2018 the US military ordered a review of soldiers use of the app after an analysis of the data it generated revealed the location of secretive American and Australian military basesppThis is all down to a user interface problem feature with the apps Global Heatmap function Strava users can choose to keep their location secret but the app maps information by default and it appears that GSPR members may be more interested in showing off their fitness prowess than securing their data even after years of examples of why this is a really bad ideappOther workout software is just as bad Fitness app Polar has been caught exposing similar information which prompted a massive review of operations and a tightening up of security defaults for the code but only after journalists started exposing the flaws in openly publishing years of its users movementsppSome Strava users celebrate sharing their data however and can be quite artistic about it In 2021 Aussie cyclist Peter Stokes pedaled over 150km around Adelaide to trace out the outline of the baby used for the cover of Nirvanas classic Nevermind albumppHopefully French bodyguards will put Something in the Way of further data disclosures ppSend us newsppThe Register Biting the hand that feeds ITpp
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