Kamal Ghorui
A French officer reportedly revealed the location of an aircraft carrier deployed towards the Middle East after publicly recording a run on the sports app Strava.The officer, referred to as Arthur by French news outlet Le Monde, logged a 35-minute run on March 13 while exercising on the deck of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. Using a smartwatch, he uploaded the activity to the app, creating a map that showed the vessel’s location.According to Le Monde, the carrier was northwest of Cyprus, around 100km (62 miles) from the Turkish coast, with satellite images capturing the vessel and its escort. BBC Verify said it was unable to find the route, though it was possible it had later been deleted or the user’s privacy settings had been changed.In a statement to AFP news agency, the French armed forces said the reported incident did “not comply with the current instructions” and that appropriate measures would be taken if the report was true.The Charles de Gaulle is the main part of a carrier strike group recently deployed to the eastern Mediterranean by France’s ministry of armed forces, as tensions in the region continue due to the Iran war. The ministry said the group was sent “to protect French nationals, defend France’s interests in the region, and support its partners and allies”.Aboard the vessel are 20 fighter jets, two surveillance aircraft and three helicopters. The deployment is part of France’s recent bolstering of its military presence in the Middle East, which French President Emmanuel Macron described as strictly “defensive.”The incident is the latest in a series of cases in which activity on Strava has exposed sensitive details. Le Monde previously reported that runs shared by Macron’s bodyguards jeopardised his location on several occasions, while Secret Service agents accompanying then-US President Joe Biden also shared their whereabouts on the app in 2024.A similar report that year said the app showed bodyguards for Russian President Vladimir Putin at luxurious properties the Kremlin denies owning. Another Strava feature, its ‘heatmap’, has also faced criticism for sharing exercise routes of military personnel at bases around the world.The heatmaps show all public activity recorded by users globally, allowing people to zoom in and explore different areas. In 2018, the US military said it was examining the map after security concerns were raised. A disinformation watchdog also said the app allowed suspicious figures to identify and track security personnel working at secretive bases in Israel.San Francisco-based Strava uses a mobile phone’s or fitness device’s GPS to track exercise activity. The company says it has more than 195 million users in more than 185 countries.
