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The widespread running app Strava has in a number of cases been able to reveal the whereabouts of some of the world’s most powerful people.
This is what the major French newspaper Le Monde writes in an article published earlier this week. The story has since been reported by several other international media – including the British The Guardian and The Independent.
Strava has over 120 million users worldwide, and the app can be used to record runs, among other things. You can basically also see quite precisely where and when a Strava user has run.
Precisely that function has been used to gain insight into confidential information about, for example, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
This is what the news agency AP writes on the basis of Le Monde’s article.
It is not the presidents themselves who have shared the information. Instead, it is typically security guards who have shared runs on Strava in their spare time while being close to the president in question.
In the case of Joe Biden, in 2023 one could find a hotel that Joe Biden stayed at in San Francisco shortly before a meeting with the President of China, Xi Jinping.
A few hours before the high-profile meeting, a security guard ran a trip departing from the hotel, writes Le Monde according to AP.
The Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting American presidents, tells Le Monde that security service employees are not allowed to use their own electronics – for example mobile phones and smartwatches – during working hours.
However, it also says that the Secret Service ‘does not prohibit an employee’s use of social media in their free time’. This is written by AP.
It is not the first time that Strava has been used to reveal confidential information. In 2018, it emerged that US soldiers’ Strava rides could be used to track down secret US military bases.
It is possible in the Strava app to hide your location during an activity. You can also hide, for example, the first and last few hundred meters of a trip.
Source: politiken.dk
