Pentagon Prohibits Personnel From Using GPS Services in All ‘Operational Areas’
August 6, 2018 01:22 PM ET
The device-agnostic policy applies to smartphones, tablets, fitness trackers, smartwatches and all other applications with geolocation features.
The Defense Department on Monday issued an order barring all personnel from using geolocation services on their personal and government-issued devices in all “operational areas.”
The policy, which applies to smartphones, tablets, fitness trackers, smartwatches and all other applications with geolocation features, goes into effect immediately.
“The rapidly evolving market of devices, applications, and services with geolocation capabilities … presents significant risk to Department of Defense personnel both on- and off-duty, and to our military operations globally,” Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan wrote Friday in a memo to top Pentagon brass.
“These geolocation capabilities can expose personal information, locations, routines and numbers of DoD personnel,” he said, which can create “unintended security consequences and increased risk to the joint force and mission.”
Under the new measure, combatant commanders in operational areas can make exceptions for certain government-issued devices based on “mission necessity.” They can also permit the use of geolocation services on personal devices after conducting a comprehensive operations security survey.
https://www.nextgov.com/policy/2018/08/pentagon-prohibits-personnel-using-gps-services-all-operational-areas/150304/