US military disabled ad tracking on troops’ devices following reports of targeted attacks

美国军方在收到针对性攻击报告后，禁用了士兵设备上的广告追踪功能

The U.S. Department of Defense has disabled advertising tracking on troops’ phones and computers as part of an effort to protect them from threats that target their locations, according to a letter shared with Senator Ron Wyden. 根据一份提供给参议员罗恩·怀登（Ron Wyden）的信件显示，美国国防部已禁用了士兵手机和电脑上的广告追踪功能，旨在保护他们免受针对其位置的威胁。

Per a letter shared with the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Wyden said that the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command have all disabled advertising tracking across their government-issued devices. This includes the departments’ iPhones and Android devices, and Windows computers managed across the federal military enterprise network, the letter said. 根据这份提供给参议院情报委员会资深民主党人的信件，怀登表示，美国陆军、空军、海军、海军陆战队以及特种作战司令部均已在其政府配发的设备上禁用了广告追踪功能。信中提到，这包括各部门的 iPhone、安卓设备，以及在联邦军事企业网络中管理的 Windows 电脑。

Reuters, which first reported the news and the letters, said the military rolled out the protections earlier this year. The Air Force told Wyden it implemented its changes more recently in July. 率先报道此消息及相关信件的路透社称，军方于今年早些时候推出了这些保护措施。空军则告知怀登，其相关调整是在今年 7 月才实施的。

The aim is to prevent adversaries, including hostile governments, from using location data derived from the apps on troops’ phones to target them on the battlefield or on their bases. Location data collected from phone apps is commonly shared with third-party companies and data brokers, which then sell the information on the commercial market. 此举旨在防止包括敌对政府在内的对手，利用从士兵手机应用程序中获取的位置数据，在战场或军事基地对他们进行定位攻击。从手机应用中收集的位置数据通常会被共享给第三方公司和数据经纪人，随后在商业市场上进行出售。

Disabling the advertising ID makes the person far more difficult to identify as the location data blends in with everyone else whose advertising ID is also disabled. 禁用广告标识符（Advertising ID）使得个人身份更难被识别，因为这些位置数据会与其他同样禁用了广告标识符的用户数据混在一起。

Wyden raised the issue earlier this year in a letter to U.S. military leaders after finding that unnamed foreign adversaries had targeted U.S. troops in the Middle East using their commercially obtained location data. The senator, a known privacy hawk on Capitol Hill, said that while the move to reduce the advertising tracking was commendable, he warned that the personal devices of troops and contractors brought onto military bases could still expose service members and facilities to attacks. 怀登在今年早些时候致信美国军方领导人提出了这一问题，此前他发现未具名的外国对手曾利用商业获取的位置数据，在中东地区针对美军士兵进行攻击。作为国会山知名的隐私保护强硬派，怀登表示，虽然减少广告追踪的举措值得称赞，但他警告称，士兵和承包商带入军事基地的个人设备，仍可能使军方人员和设施面临攻击风险。

While the U.S. government has acknowledged that its troops face a risk from this data, the U.S. intelligence community and the FBI have confirmed that they buy this data for surveillance and intelligence collection without a warrant. 尽管美国政府已承认其士兵面临此类数据带来的风险，但美国情报界和联邦调查局（FBI）已证实，他们会在没有搜查令的情况下购买此类数据，用于监视和情报收集。