Military Blocks Ad Trackers

The U.S. military has disabled advertising identifiers and tracking on a range of government Windows and mobile devices after evidence that commercially available tracking datasets were used to help target troops. Letters to lawmakers (cited by Reuters) show the Army blocked ad IDs on Windows before 2021 and on Android/Apple devices by February 2026, and officials are weighing stricter phone‑use limits for deployed personnel. — This reveals how private data markets create direct national‑security vulnerabilities and forces choices about whether to regulate data brokers, change device defaults, or restrict consumer data markets more broadly.