US military disables advertising identifiers on devices over troop-tracking risks
US military branches have disabled advertising identifiers on many service-issued computers and mobile devices as officials confront the risk that commercially sold location data could expose deployed personnel.
In short
- US military branches have disabled advertising identifiers on many service-issued computers and mobile devices as officials confront the risk that commercially sold location data could expose deployed personnel.
The United States military has disabled advertising identifiers on a range of service-issued computers and mobile devices amid concern that commercially available location data could be used to track troops, according to military correspondence released on September 4, 2026.
The US Air Force told Senator Ron Wyden that it switched off the identifiers on computers and phones about two months ago, while US Special Operations Command said it had recently done so on Windows devices. The Army said advertising identifiers on its mobile devices had been disabled by default since at least February 2026; it said the feature had been blocked on Windows computers since before 2021.
Advertising identifiers allow marketers to follow activity across applications. When combined with brokered location records, the data can potentially reveal the movements of people carrying particular devices. The military’s action follows reports that such data had been used to track US forces in the Middle East.
Wyden and Representative Pat Harrigan asked the Pentagon on September 4 to investigate whether existing safeguards adequately address the data-broker threat. The Pentagon said it would respond directly to the lawmakers. A privacy-technology specialist cited in the source said disabling the identifiers should reduce exposure through bulk data sales, while warning that other technical signals can still be combined to track devices.
