StravaLeaks: Dates of French nuclear submarine patrols revealed by careless crew members

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00:00It's the most secret naval base in France. Impossible to enter without an extensive search

00:06and all electronics must be locked away.

00:09And for good reason.

00:10Île Long, in the harbour of Brest in Brittany, is home to France's four nuclear-powered ballistic

00:15missile submarines.

00:17But this security fortress was breached when 16 submariners went for a run with their smartwatches,

00:22inadvertently leaking their patrol schedules via the Strava app that mapped and shared

00:26their route.

00:28I think this is serious because those submarines are our nuclear deterrent, safeguarding the

00:34country. Some things must stay secret.

00:38The Navy has announced the servicemen involved have been sanctioned, with strict reminders

00:42issued to all personnel.

00:44Negligence on the part of some personnel does not constitute breaches that could affect

00:48the activities of the Île Long operational base.

00:52Strava is the largest sporting community worldwide, boasting 120 million users and

00:57billions of journeys recorded, visible for anyone to view online, if the privacy settings

01:02haven't been changed.

01:05Every 400 metres that I run, it saves the data in a route. If I choose to leave it public,

01:10anyone can see where I've been.

01:13In the forces, efforts are made to reduce personnel's digital footprint, but it's not

01:18always possible.

01:21Considering personal lives are now all digitised, it's become really hard, especially when you

01:27have people away from their families for weeks or months at a time.

01:32The French Navy aren't the only victims though. Le Monde found the movements of Joe Biden,

01:37Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin could all be traced via their bodyguards' public usage

01:42of Strava.

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