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'StravaLeaks': France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app
'StravaLeaks': France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app
As the Charles de Gaulle and its strike group approach the Middle East, Le Monde identified a French sailor using the Strava fitness application in the Mediterranean Sea. This security flaw remains unaddressed despite our previous revelations.
By Asia Balluffier, Sébastien Bourdon, Liselotte Mas and Antoine Schirer
Published yesterday at 12:45 pm (Paris)
3 min read Lire en français
On March 13, at 10:35 am, amid the Mediterranean's rolling waves, Arthur, a young French Navy officer whose first name has been changed, went for a run around the deck of the ship on which he serves. To log his daily run – a little over seven kilometers in 35 minutes – he used a smartwatch. His data then appeared online.
Arthur had a profile on the Strava fitness app that anyone could view, because it was set to "public." As a result, the young officer almost instantly revealed the exact location of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the Mediterranean Sea as it traveled northwest of Cyprus, together with its escort, about 100 kilometers off the coast of Turkey, Le Monde found.
An anonymized Strava post showing the activity that was recorded in the Mediterranean Sea, on March 13, 2026. STRAVA / LE MONDE
The presence in the region of the French naval strike group – composed of at least three frigates and a support vessel in addition to the aircraft carrier – was not a secret. On March 3, President Emmanuel Macron announced that he had ordered its deployment, just days after Israel and the United States attacked Iran. At the time, the Charles de Gaulle, France's only aircraft carrier, was operating in the Baltic Sea as part of NATO exercises and was scheduled to remain there until May. On March 6, French authorities announced that it had passed through the Strait of Gibraltar.
{snip}
As the Charles de Gaulle and its strike group approach the Middle East, Le Monde identified a French sailor using the Strava fitness application in the Mediterranean Sea. This security flaw remains unaddressed despite our previous revelations.
By Asia Balluffier, Sébastien Bourdon, Liselotte Mas and Antoine Schirer
Published yesterday at 12:45 pm (Paris)
3 min read Lire en français
On March 13, at 10:35 am, amid the Mediterranean's rolling waves, Arthur, a young French Navy officer whose first name has been changed, went for a run around the deck of the ship on which he serves. To log his daily run – a little over seven kilometers in 35 minutes – he used a smartwatch. His data then appeared online.
Arthur had a profile on the Strava fitness app that anyone could view, because it was set to "public." As a result, the young officer almost instantly revealed the exact location of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the Mediterranean Sea as it traveled northwest of Cyprus, together with its escort, about 100 kilometers off the coast of Turkey, Le Monde found.
An anonymized Strava post showing the activity that was recorded in the Mediterranean Sea, on March 13, 2026. STRAVA / LE MONDE
The presence in the region of the French naval strike group – composed of at least three frigates and a support vessel in addition to the aircraft carrier – was not a secret. On March 3, President Emmanuel Macron announced that he had ordered its deployment, just days after Israel and the United States attacked Iran. At the time, the Charles de Gaulle, France's only aircraft carrier, was operating in the Baltic Sea as part of NATO exercises and was scheduled to remain there until May. On March 6, French authorities announced that it had passed through the Strait of Gibraltar.
{snip}