The US military has disabled advertising trackers on a range of phones and computers used by its personnel, amid growing concerns that commercially collected location data could be used to track and target American troops in the Middle East, Reuters reported.
The move follows months of scrutiny over the risks posed by mobile advertising data, which can reveal the location and movements of device users and is often collected and sold by data brokers.
According to letters released on Friday by US Senator Ron Wyden and statements to Reuters, the Air Force disabled advertising identifiers on computers and mobile phones about two months ago. US Special Operations Command said it had also recently disabled them on Windows devices.
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The Army told Reuters that advertising IDs on Windows computers had been blocked since before 2021, while the feature was disabled by default on Android and Apple mobile devices at least since February 2026. The Navy also confirmed in a letter to Wyden that it had disabled advertising IDs, although it did not specify when.
Mobile advertising IDs, or MAIDs, are unique identifiers that can be used to track activity across apps and help pinpoint a device's physical location.
The disclosures have highlighted a broader national security concern: location information collected by the advertising industry and sold through data brokers could potentially be used to identify military personnel deployed in conflict zones.
The development comes as the US military considers tighter restrictions on smartphone use in the Middle East. Reuters reported in July that some deployed personnel could be ordered to surrender their phones amid concerns that videos posted online were helping Iran locate and target American bases.
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Wyden and US Representative Pat Harrigan have now asked the Pentagon to investigate whether the military has done enough to address the risks posed by the commercial location-data trade.
Wyden said the measures taken so far had not been effective in fully neutralising the threat. Harrigan said US adversaries should not be able to buy data that could help track American troops.
Privacy and ad-tech expert Zach Edwards told Reuters that disabling MAIDs was a positive step because it would prevent device locations from being included in certain bulk data sales. However, he cautioned that troops could still potentially be tracked through apps and other methods, including by combining technical device information with network and location data. The Pentagon said it would respond directly to the lawmakers
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