Name: Strava
Age: Founded by former Harvard rowers Michael Horvath and Mark Gainey in 2009.
And what exactly? A fitness application.
How does it work? It uses GPS data to track your activities and is popular with cyclists and runners, who record their activity and then share it with a community. Also useful for the Jackal…
As in ‘The day of … ‘? How is that? An investigation by the French newspaper Le Monde has used it to track the movements of Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris and other world leaders.
Trump does not He looks like a typical Strava user… Well, not them specifically, but their bodyguards. Le Monde discovered that some US Secret Service agents use the app, even since the assassination attempts on Trump. They have also followed the movements of Jill Biden and Melania Trump using the Strava profiles of their bodyguards.
Presumably they have noticed that Melania is not close to her husband? It’s not that kind of research. In another example, they identified a San Francisco hotel where Joe Biden was meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, using an agent’s Strava-tracked running route.
It seems very lax, are agents allowed to use their personal phones? Not while working, but the US Secret Service told Le Monde that they do not prohibit personal use of social media off duty. However, they also said that “affected staff have been notified” and “we will review this information to determine if additional training or guidance is required.”
They seem to be worried. Is it just Americans? But not. The document also identified 12 members of the French security group GSPR and six members of the Russian FSO.
I’m sure Putin will tell them to be more careful in the future.. There is no news from the Kremlin. Macron’s office said his security was not affected, but told officers not to use the app.
YoIs this the first time there have been security concerns about Strava? Funny you should ask. In 2018, a student discovered that he had mapped US bases in Syria and Afghanistan, as well as the Royal Navy’s Faslane base. Another security breach in 2022 revealed the identities and movements of Security personnel at military bases in Israel.. Then, last July, things got really serious…
Oh, continue. In Singapore, rental brokers hits the news offering a service through which they registered with other people’s identity documents and did races for them, charging per kilometer.
So people could pretend to have exercised that they hadn’t? Exactly. Strava riders, as they became known.
But that’s defeating the point of the whole thing! No congratulations! Well, some people will do anything to get a better PB.
Say: “Strava In Swedish it means to strive, don’t you know?
Don’t say: “Aha, so that’s the layout of Camp David…”