Come Le Monde ha localizzato 18.000 militari francesi con l’app di fitness Strava

On the Strava fitness app, there are individual cases that raise concerns, some of which *Le Monde* has already documented. For example, [the naval officer](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/03/20/stravaleaks-france-s-aircraft-carrier-located-in-real-time-by-le-monde-through-fitness-app_6751640_4.html) who went jogging in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, thereby revealing, at the moment of recording his run, the exact position of the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier strike group. Or the military personnel who exercised on the docks of the Ile Longue base, where France’s nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SNLE) operate, and whose activities provide[ information about patrol schedules](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/videos/article/2025/01/13/stravaleaks-dates-of-french-nuclear-submarine-patrols-revealed-by-careless-crew-members_6737005_108.html). Or even the bodyguards of the [French](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/10/27/how-emmanuel-macron-can-be-tracked-watch-the-first-episode-of-stravaleaks_6730708_7.html), [American](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/united-states/article/2024/10/28/biden-and-trump-put-in-danger-by-secret-service-agents-watch-the-second-episode-of-stravaleaks_6730825_133.html) and [Russian ](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/10/29/putin-s-bodyguards-go-on-runs-near-palace-he-denies-owning-stravaleaks-episode-3_6730915_4.html)presidents, whose sporting activities make it possible to track these heads of state and, in some cases, to anticipate their movements.

And most significantly, *Le Monde* has uncovered several thousand servicemembers, of all ranks and specialties, who, by exercising and running in far-flung corners of the world and sharing their performances on their public Strava profiles, reveal the activities of the French armed forces as a whole, from the most banal to the most sensitive.

Since February 2024, *Le Monde* has undertaken large-scale monitoring work. First, by systematically identifying user profiles who had been active at around 100 French military bases, both within France and abroad. Two years ago, we compiled a list of 18,599 profiles. Given the highly regulated access to these sites, these profiles are necessarily military personnel or contractors working for the French Ministry of the Armed Forces (or individuals who formerly held such positions). We then tracked them automatically, generating a daily map that visualized the geographic distribution of their sporting activities in near real time. That is how, on March 13, *Le Mond*e spotted a jogger out running in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea – and in doing so, was able to locate the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and its escort.

On average, *Le Monde* was able to identify more than 1,000 locations per day over a two-year period. This work was made possible because the Strava profiles were public, accessible to anyone. Over this time, and despite the initial revelations from our [#StravaLeaks ](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/stravaleaks/)series in autumn 2024, only a minority of users changed their privacy settings. After a year of monitoring, 1,372 profiles had been switched to “private” on the sports application. That accounts for barely 7% of our list.

Day after day, this monitoring provides a wealth of information about the activities of military personnel and, therefore, about the French army. The soldiers exercised on the bases where *Le Monde* was able to identify them, but also around their homes throughout France. Some spent their vacations in Spain, the United States, or Thailand, while others travel through Italy with their partners – information that makes it possible to estimate the availability of certain units, or even to obtain personal information about specific soldiers: What is the address of this engineer from the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA)? Which relatives does that high-ranking officer run with? Is this sailor at sea, or at home with their family?

Kudos to Le Monde for finding this out

Interesting. Strava means horror in Serbian.