In a startling security oversight amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, a French naval officer inadvertently exposed the precise location of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. This slip occurred in the Mediterranean, as reported by the French newspaper Le Monde.
The incident unfolded when the officer, utilizing a public fitness app, logged a 36-minute workout on his Strava profile. By doing so, he inadvertently allowed the public to trace the carrier and its accompanying fleet in real-time as they navigated near Cyprus.
Strava, a popular app among fitness enthusiasts globally with a user base of 120 million, enables individuals to document and share their exercise routines. However, such features can occasionally lead to unintended disclosures, as this case illustrates.
Detailed data revealed that the sailor recorded a 4-mile run on March 13 using his smartwatch, which tracked his path around the deck of the nearly 900-foot-long Charles de Gaulle. This information pinpointed the carrier’s location approximately 62 miles off the Turkish coast. Notably, this occurred approximately two weeks after US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran, heightening the sensitivity of the carrier’s deployment.
France had publicly announced the carrier’s mission on March 3. Despite this, the unintended visibility of such military assets remains a significant concern. Furthermore, another public Strava profile has been detected, sharing geotagged workouts from a different French Navy vessel on an active assignment, complete with photos of the deck, crew, and onboard gym equipment.
At least one other public profile has been sharing geotagged workouts from another French Navy ship on an active mission – complete with snaps of the deck, crew members, and onboard exercise equipment.
The security breach comes as President Trump urges allied nations to beef up protections of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global trade route threatened by escalating Gulf tensions.
While the Department of War previously banned fitness-tracking apps and wearables, France has faced repeated headaches caused by Strava.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s security detail – along with those of US presidents and Russia’s Vladimir Putin – used the app as recently as last year, inadvertently revealing their identities through its location-sharing feature, the outlet reported.
In one instance, an agent assigned to then-President Biden went for a jog and traced his route during his 2023 trip to San Francisco for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The outlet was able to determine the hotel Biden was staying at during his West Coast trip based on the data that appeared on the agent’s Strava profile.
The Armed Forces General Staff told Le Monde that the sailor violated digital security rules by sharing his run and vowed that “appropriate measures will be taken by the command.”
