14 DAY TRIAL // The United States National Security Agency, or NSA, requires employees to disable location sharing on their mobile devices and other gadgets to eliminate any security risk and leak of information.
More specifically, the NSA tells its staff that mobile devices shouldn’t have location services turned on because these could track movement inside government facilities and provide access to sensitive data.
The NSA even wants services like tracking for lost devices to be turned off, while location and ad permissions for the installed apps must be disabled. Browsing and sharing the location on the web is also not recommended, according to a report from the WSJ.
“Using a mobile device—even powering it on—exposes location data. Mobile devices inherently trust cellular networks and providers, and the cellular provider receives real-time location information for a mobile device every time it connects to the network,” the internal NSA guidance reads.
“This means a provider can track users across a wide area. In some scenarios, such as 911 calls, this capability saves lives, whereas for personnel with location sensitivities, it may incur risks. If an adversary can influence or control the provider in some way, this location data may be compromised.”
Switching to airplane mode
The warning is aimed not only at smartphones but also at any other device that could provide location data, such as smartwatches.
“Anything that sends and receives wireless signals has location risks similar to mobile devices,” the NSA tells staff.
This isn’t the first time when United States authorities are trying to deal with the increased security risk caused by modern technology. Two years, the Defense Department banned employees from using any devices with location tracking, including here not only smartphones, but also smartwatches and activity trackers.
NSA explains that the best way to deal with all security risks is to switch to airplane mode whenever the device is not in use.