Military Personnel Remain Trackable via Commercial Location Data

US military personnel can still be identified through commercial location data purchases, despite DoD efforts to block tracking — and Congress is demanding an investigation.

Military personnel remain identifiable through commercial location data purchases as of September 2026. US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC) requested a Defense Department Inspector General investigation into persistent location data tracking on September 6, 2026. The Department of Defense has acknowledged this risk since at least 2016, though Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command disabled advertising identifiers on government devices in July 2026.

Zach Edwards of Infoblox states that disabling advertising identifiers would prevent military location data from being sold by data brokers. Yet Google and Apple have not reformed mobile advertising identifiers despite being well-documented as the primary data used by brokers for tracking.

This friction threatens national security by enabling unauthorized tracking of military personnel, risking operational safety and confidentiality. The gap between DoD policies and commercial data practices creates a vulnerability that could expose sensitive movements without authorization.

Next steps include the DoD’s response to the Inspector General’s investigation, whether Google and Apple will update identifiers, and whether location data sales continue despite DoD policies. Caveats: the availability of location data for tracking is based on reports, not confirmed by the DoD.

Source: The Register