The US military disables advertising identifiers on its devices to reduce the risk of location tracking

This development comes in the wake of reports of the use of commercially available location data to target US forces in the Middle East.

The US Air Force informed Senator Wyden that it disabled advertising identifiers on computers and mobile phones two months ago. The US Special Operations Command stated in a separate message that it had recently disabled it on its devices that use the Windows operating system.

The US military told Reuters that recognition of ads linked to mobile devices had been disabled since earlier this year.

Wyden, a Democrat, has been demanding that the War Department provide answers on this issue for several months. This information highlights a growing national security concern that location data collected by the advertising industry and sold by data brokerage companies, which are companies that collect and resell personal data, could be used to track and target military personnel deployed in war zones. The Air Force and Special Operations Command declined to comment further.

Similar letters from the Army and Navy to Wyden indicated that they had disabled advertising identifiers on military devices, without specifying when those restrictions would be imposed. The US Army said in a statement that ad trackers had been blocked on Windows computers “since before 2021,” while they had only been automatically disabled on Android and Apple devices “since at least February 2026.”

These efforts aim to limit the location data generated by smartphones at a time when military officials are considering imposing stricter restrictions on the use of phones in general.

In July, Reuters reported that some military personnel deployed in the Middle East may be asked to hand over their phones amid concerns that the videos they publish online are helping Iran target US bases in the region. Senators Wyden and Pat Harrigan, a Republican member of the House of Representatives from North Carolina, sent a letter to the Pentagon on Friday demanding an investigation into whether the military has taken sufficient measures to address the risks resulting from the trade of location data.

The message included updates from various branches of the armed forces regarding efforts to disable advertising identifiers on military devices. Wyden said in a statement that it was clear that the military's efforts "were ineffective in neutralizing this threat." Harrigan stated that enemies of the United States "should not be able to use a credit card to purchase information that helps them track American forces."

Mobile ad trackers are unique identifiers linked to specific devices that can be used to track users' activity across mobile applications and determine their precise location.

Zach Edwards, co-founder of Decrypt Ads, a company that specializes in advertising technology and privacy protection, said that efforts to disable advertising identifiers on devices used by military personnel are “definitely a positive step.”

He added that these restrictions would include “essentially not including their locations among the data sold in large quantities by many companies,” but warned that military personnel could be tracked through applications in other, more complex ways, for example by linking technical data on devices with network data or location information.