The US military has disabled advertising identifiers on a range of phones and computers, according to letters released Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden and statements the service branches gave Reuters, following reports that commercially available location data had been used to target American forces in the Middle East.
The Air Force told Wyden it disabled the identifiers on computers and mobile phones two months ago. Special Operations Command said in a separate letter that it had recently disabled them on its Windows devices. Similar letters from the Army and Navy said they had disabled advertising IDs on military devices but gave no indication of when the restrictions were imposed. The Army said in a statement that advertising IDs had been blocked on Windows computers since before 2021, and that Android and Apple mobile devices had them disabled by default since at least February 2026. Messages seeking comment from the Navy went unreturned. The Air Force and Special Operations Command declined further comment, Reuters reported.
Mobile advertising IDs, often abbreviated MAID, are unique identifiers linked to individual devices. They can track activity across mobile applications and help pinpoint a device's physical location. The disclosures highlight a growing national security concern: that location data collected by the advertising industry and sold by data brokers, the companies that collate and resell personal data, can be used to track and target military personnel.
Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has pressed the Pentagon on the issue for months. On Friday he and Rep. Pat Harrigan, a North Carolina Republican, sent a letter to the Pentagon asking for an investigation into whether the military had properly countered the dangers of the location data trade. The letter included the updates from the various service branches on their efforts to disable advertising IDs on military devices.
Wyden said in a statement that the military's efforts "have not been effective at neutralizing this threat." Harrigan said US enemies should not be able to pull out a credit card and buy information that helps them track American troops, according to Reuters.
The Pentagon said in an email it would respond to the lawmakers directly.
The effort to reduce the location data generated by smartphones comes as military officials weigh increasingly strict restrictions on phone use overall. Reuters reported in July that some deployed personnel in the Middle East could be ordered to surrender their phones, amid concerns that mobile videos they were posting to the internet were helping Iran target American bases in the region.