The Open Signal: How Mobile Phone Location Data Can Expose and Endanger American Troops

American troops in war zones now face a surveillance risk that is at once banal and potentially lethal: the ordinary smartphones and connected devices they carry can expose where they live, move, gather, and operate. What once looked like a privacy problem has become an operational-security problem, because location data from consumer apps, cellular networks, wireless radios, and device identifiers can be assembled into a map not only of military presence, but of military planning and operational intent. The danger is no longer merely theoretical.

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