For soldiers on the battlefield, the act of turning on one’s smartphone has been described as the digital equivalent of lighting a cigarette, as doing so creates a signal about one’s location that can be picked up by the enemy. Despite this, smartphones have played a meaningful role in recent conflicts, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where the devices have been used for communicating in the event of radio failure, disseminating on-the-ground footage to counter … Continue reading The weaponizing of smartphone location data on the battlefield