The US military just turned off ad tracking on its phones. Maybe you should too

Branches of the US military have reportedly disabled ad-tracking on government-issued phones and computers, following concerns that commercially-available location data has been used to target American forces in the Middle East.

Confirmation that the US Army, Air Force, Navy, and Special Operations Command had disabled advertising IDs on government-issued devices to protect personnel emerged following the release of letters released last week by Senator Ron Wyden, who has been pressing the Pentagon to do this for months.

So, why is this important?

Every smartphone carries a mobile advertising ID - Apple calls its version the IDFA, and Google calls its the GAID. The ID is a string of characters tied to your smartphone that lets advertisers recognise you as you move between different apps. Most apps quietly share it with outside companies, from where it can end up in the hands of data brokers, who routinely buy and sell this kind of information

By itself a mobile advertising ID doesn't tell you very much. But when combined with location data that many apps also collect, it can become a mechanism to track exactly where a particular phone goes, day and night.

Back in April, US Central Command reportedly warned of "multiple threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data."

It is, of course, precisely the kind of intelligence that an enemy state would want before aiming a drone or missile.

Senator Wyden, along with Representative Pat Harrigan, wrote to the Pentagon last week asking its inspector general to investigate whether the armed forces have properly countered the risks that their location data is being traded.

Reuters reported Harrigan as saying:

Of course, just because advertising IDs might be disabled on government-owned devices does not mean that there are not real concerns that personal smartphones used by troops and other personnel are also carelessly sharing sensitive data.

In July, for instance, Reuters reported that troops in Jordan had been told their personal devices would be confiscated to prevent adversaries from accessing the "reactions, photos, and footage from the cellphones of our troops."

And at the end of last month, the US Navy told personnel to clean up their social media profiles, as adversaries might be exploiting them for open-source intelligence.

The truth is that the threat is not just a military one. Any member of the general public may also dislike the amount of information their phones are collecting about them, and potentially sharing with data brokers.

You don't need to be anywhere near the front line of an international conflict to take action to better defend your privacy.

On an iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking, and switch off "Allow Apps to Request to Track."

On Android, head to Settings > Privacy > Ads. Recent versions should let you delete your advertising ID entirely.

Taking these steps will not stop every way in which you could be tracked, or do anything about the data that has already been collected. But it is a simple way which helps to prevent further information sliding from your life into a data broker's database.

If it's good enough for the US military - maybe it should be good enough for you too.