Polar: disassembled military base App Fitness – COMPUTER PHOTO

D The Swedish manufacturer Polar offers a variety of smart devices that help consumers monitor their fitness. In addition to smartwatches, pulsation sensors and fitness trackers are part of the badortment. The devices collect data and allow the carrier to have an accurate overview of his athletic performance. But not only, as the Dutch newspaper De Correspondent reports. The editors were able to mobilize other users, including soldiers, secret agents and nuclear personnel, thanks to a Polar function

The polar function tries more than it should

. Explore the feature on the Polar website. A map shows your own training tracks and those of users who share their profile. The respective user profile shows other details such as name, hometown, workout habits. Although there are also private profiles, but by an error in the Polar application, sensitive data is still visible. As the publishers demonstrate, finding the address of a person is easy. To do this, look at the stored routes. If many trips start from a certain point, chances are high that the person lives there. The editors reside not only, but also 6,460 employees who work in sensitive areas such as military installations, intelligence centers and the Weien Haus.

The Polar Card Discovers Soldiers & Co.

Almost every person today has a smartphone, as well as soldiers, agents and other government employees. Although often use specially secure devices, but the use of the application is rarely strictly regulated. It happens so that a soldier has installed the Polar app on his smartphone and runs every day on a military base in Iraq. With a sample of about 100 people, publishers were able, within minutes, to determine the name and location with 90% accuracy. What's more, in addition to the current location, they found the home address via the map. This is dangerous for people whose identity and place must be kept secret.

Polar reacts quickly

The journalists informed Polar about their discovery. The company reacted immediately and deactivated the card function last Friday until further notice. The paper also taught at the Dutch Ministry of Defense. Authorities have informed staff and plan to ban the future use of fitness apps and wearables for some employees. In practice, the Polar map was visible to all registered users. In the hands of terrorists or other attackers, it would have been a simple and powerful weapon to attack enemies. With a little research, they would have quickly found additional personal information via search engines and social networks.