The United States Air Force issued an official warning to its troops earlier this month about the "devastating" implications of carelessly using certain social media tools, according to the Associated Press.
In a memo posted on its internal website, the Air Force cautioned its servicemen and women from utilizing popular geolocation applications that reside on Facebook and other social networking sites. Services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and Facebook Places can recognize a person's exact location and even identify it on a map. Air Force officials are concerned that troops who login to these applications on their smartphones will inadvertently reveal their classified location to enemy troops.
"All Airmen must understand the implications of using location-based services," read the message. "Careless use of these services by Airmen can have devastating operations security and privacy implications."
In addition to the website posting, the memo was also sent out to commanding officers "with instructions to get the word out to all Airmen," Air Force spokesman Major Chad Steffey told the AFP.
While this warning has not yet been sent out to other branches of the armed forces, the Associated Press reports that similar notices may be circulated to members of the Army and the Marines in the coming week.
Strangely enough, the decision by the Air Force to warn its servicemen and women about the potential consequences of location-based applications comes only a few months after the Pentagon loosened its restrictions on social networking. As of earlier this year, certain military personnel were not allowed to use most social media sites. The ban was retracted after some branches began using media tools like Twitter to keep their personnel up-to-date on non-classified happenings.
Applications like Foursquare have recently come under scrutiny in other walks of life as well. A new website called PleaseRobMe.com was created to show consumers how dangerous it is to broadcast their location at all times.
Beecher Tuttle is a IoTevolutionworld contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Tammy Wolf
