In April 2026, U.S. Central Command confirmed that commercial smartphone data was being used to target American forces stationed abroad. At the time, Iranian missile and drone strikes had left swathes of U.S. installations across the Gulf damaged or unusable, forcing commanders to disperse thousands of troops into hotels and offices with none of a base’s perimeter security. Every one of those service members still carried the same phone in their pocket, broadcasting location data that’s for sale to anyone with a credit card.

For some reason I’ve assumed that high security environments prohibit devices that aren’t secured.

But I should know better, because decision makers are all the same, and want to use their iPad.

ETA: it’s also ironic to see the companies that were protected from any semblance of data privacy legislation sharing the sensitive data they’ve collected, and now it’s a problem.