The French aircraft carrier, FS Charles De Gaulle sails in the Mediterranean Sea, May 2, 2024. The carrier’s location was recently exposed in the Mediterranean Sea by a sailor using a fitness app. (Mercy Crowe/U.S. Navy)
A French aircraft carrier’s location was recently exposed in the Mediterranean Sea — not through classified intelligence channels, but via a fitness app.
The incident occurred last week when a French navy officer supporting a deployment at sea recorded a 36-minute run on Strava and uploaded it publicly, France’s Le Monde newspaper reported Thursday.
Strava, a popular fitness platform that tracks pace, distance and time through GPS-enabled software, allows users to share workout details through a social media-like interface. These uploaded maps can reveal precise movement patterns and locations.
In this case, the navy officer recorded a public 4-mile run in open water off the coast of France’s Cotentin Peninsula. Le Monde later used satellite images to confirm that the Charles de Gaulle and its support ships were in the area, effectively broadcasting sensitive information.
French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed earlier this month that the Charles de Gaulle naval strike group was deployed in the eastern Mediterranean as part of ongoing operations tied to regional tensions involving Iran, but the exact location of the carrier was not public.
A statement by the French Armed Forces General Staff vowed unspecified “appropriate measures” to the March 13 leak, stressing the value of “digital hygiene” for sailors, according to Le Monde.
This incident is not unprecedented. In 2018, publicly shared Strava data revealed the locations of several U.S. military bases in conflict zones, including Afghanistan and Syria, prompting a Pentagon review of service members’ use of fitness tracking technology.
The app’s “global heatmap” aggregated user data to reveal patrol routes, base perimeters and frequently traveled paths, posing a significant risk to security.
“[Defense Department] personnel are advised to emplace strict privacy settings on wireless technologies and applications,” Army Col. Rob Manning, then-Pentagon spokesperson, told Stars and Stripes in 2018.
