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Location-Based Social Networks Pose Military Security Threat, Obviously

by Terrence O'Brien on November 18, 2010 at 04:21 PM

Foursquare Checkin in Iraq
The U.S. Air Force is apparently concerned that its troops aren't the brightest crayons in the box. Officials are worried that careless updating of social networks that compile geolocation data -- like Foursquare, Facebook's Places and Twitter -- could reveal the forces' locations. Concerns about social media are nothing new in the military, but location-based services pose a particular problem because they could potentially reveal the military's exact coordinates, putting valuable intelligence just a smartphone app away from the enemy.

Most geolocation services offer reasonably robust privacy features, while Facebook and Twitter make attaching a location entirely optional. But it's still possible to reveal your whereabouts with only your words. Just ask soon-to-be House Majority Leader John Boehner, who was chastised for absentmindedly tweeting about his supposedly secret trip to Iraq. Short of banning all use of social media (which would be devastating to morale and almost impossible to enforce), the best bet is to really step up efforts to educate soldiers, as well as the general public, about digital privacy and literacy.

Tags: air force, AirForce, geolocation, military, privacy, security, social networking, SocialNetworking, top, web

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