A French Navy officer accidentally leaked the location of an aircraft carrier by logging his run on Strava

In Brief

A French Navy serviceman went for a tally connected the platform of the Charles de Gaulle craft bearer and uploaded his workout to Strava, inadvertently leaking the determination of the nuclear-powered warship arsenic it heads to the Middle East.

First reported by French paper Le Monde, the communicative is not an anomaly — this fashionable fittingness tracking app has proven to beryllium a privacy nightmare before.

By default, accounts connected the societal fittingness app are acceptable to public, publishing your way immoderate clip you log a workout. Strava information has antecedently been utilized to find military bases astir the world. In 2024, Le Monde uncovered French President Emmanuel Macron’s whereabouts by searching for the Strava accounts of his bodyguards, who uploaded nationalist workout information portion traveling with him.

An anonymized graphic from Le Monde showing the tally successful questionImage Credits:Le Monde (opens successful a caller window)

Macron had publicly announced the carrier’s deployment, truthful its question done the Mediterranean was already known. But obviously, the French subject is inactive enactment astatine superior hazard erstwhile an serviceman telegraphs its precise location. A typical for the French Armed Forces told Le Monde that the officer’s behaviour “does not comply with existent guidelines,” which “sailors are regularly made alert of.” 

Let this service arsenic a reminder for each — adjacent if you’re not successful the military, it’s astir apt worthy mounting your Strava relationship to private.

Strava did not respond to TechCrunch’s petition for remark earlier publication.

Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news