Lawmakers warn foreign adversaries are using location data to track US troops abroad

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pressing the Pentagon for answers after U.S. Central Command said it received reports that foreign adversaries may be using commercially available phone location data to monitor American troops overseas. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Rep. Pat Harrigan of North Carolina said in a letter to War Department Chief Information Officer Kirsten Davies that the department has not done enough to protect service members from data brokers that collect and sell location information from smartphones, apps and digital advertising systems. The lawmakers urged the Pentagon to disable advertising identifiers on governmentissued phones, issue stronger guidance for personal devices used by troops overseas, and adopt privacyfocused browsers and other tools that reduce tracking. They also noted that some basic protections were only recently put in place, even though security experts have warned about the issue for years.