NEWS & UPDATES
The threat is on the record.
Congress, U.S. Central Command and the NSA now say what Klōk was built to address: a phone’s identity and location can be collected, bought and used to find the person carrying it. Here is the latest reporting and the source documents behind it.
Featured
CONGRESS · MAY 28, 2026
CENTCOM TO CONGRESS
POLICY
U.S. SENATE · OFFICE OF SEN. MARTIN HEINRICH
Foreign adversaries are using commercial location data to target U.S. troops
A bipartisan group of senators and representatives, led by Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Pat Harrigan, released U.S. Central Command’s written confirmation that adversaries used commercially available phone location data against American personnel during Operation Epic Fury. It is the first time the Department of Defense has confirmed this threat in an active war zone.
“Commercial location data can be used to identify where U.S. troops congregate and their pattern of life, which can be exploited by adversaries to target attacks such as missiles, drones, and roadside bombs.”
The lawmakers’ recommended fixes, such as disabling advertising IDs and replacing tracking-heavy browsers, are a start. But CENTCOM’s own guidance concedes that turning off geolocation “does not always fully disable” it.
WHY IT MATTERS
Settings protect apps. They don’t change the identifiers a phone presents to the network every time it connects. Klōk works at that layer, so the device that’s observed is not the device you carry.
Watch
THE SHAWN RYAN SHOW · SEPT 2026
VIDEO
BYRON TAU · INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
How Iran can buy Americans’ location data
Byron Tau, author of Means of Control, explains how adversaries buy location data from U.S. marketing firms to map soldiers, operatives and State Department personnel. In his words, protecting a phone is “not just putting your phone in airplane mode.”
WHY IT MATTERS
Hardening a phone by hand takes discipline and expertise most teams don’t have. Klōk makes protection the default, not a checklist.
VIDEO
THE SHAWN RYAN SHOW #340
The government doesn’t just spy on you. It buys you.
A full-length conversation on how data brokers assemble profiles from apps, cars and everyday devices, why that data is sold with little oversight, and why it is just as easy for China, Russia or Iran to buy it.
WHY IT MATTERS
If your device’s identity can be bought, it can be tracked. Klōk breaks the link between the device you carry and the data trail it leaves.
Source documents
PRIMARY SOURCES
U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND · APR 14, 2026
CENTCOM’s answers to Congress on mobile phone use in theater
Unclassified responses confirming that CENTCOM “received multiple threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data to target or surveil US personnel.” CENTCOM also notes that disabling geolocation “does not always fully disable” it on commercial products.
WHY IT MATTERS
Even with the strictest controls in place, off doesn’t mean off. Protection has to work beneath the settings menu.
Read the document ↗
NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY · UPDATED APR 2026
NSA: Limiting Location Data Exposure
NSA guidance for defense users: “Using a mobile device—even powering it on—exposes location data.” Carriers receive real-time location every time a device connects, and commercially available rogue base stations let anyone nearby track a target. NSA’s own conclusion: mitigations “reduce, but do not eliminate” the risk.
WHY IT MATTERS
The exposure begins at the cellular connection itself, which is exactly where Klōk operates.
Read the guidance ↗
The record
2019 – 2026
How phone location became something anyone can buy, from data brokers to intelligence agencies, and why settings and court rulings haven’t closed the gap.
DEC 2019
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Twelve million phones, one dataset
A single leaked file held more than 50 billion location pings from 12 million Americans’ phones, collected through ordinary apps.
Read ↗
NOV 2020
MOTHERBOARD / VICE
The U.S. military buys location data from everyday apps
Special Operations Command bought access to a tool that draws a shape on a map, finds every device inside it, and follows any one of them.
Read ↗
JUN 2023
TECHCRUNCH
U.S. intelligence confirms it buys Americans’ data
A declassified ODNI report admits commercially available data can be de-anonymized and is available to anyone, including adversaries.
Read ↗
OCT 2024
KREBSONSECURITY
Your advertising ID is a tracking beacon
An investigator used a commercial tool to isolate phones in a courthouse jurors’ lot and follow one juror home.
Read ↗
DEC 2024
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Brokers sold data from military installations
The FTC says Gravy Analytics and Venntel processed 17 billion signals from about a billion devices a day, and barred sales tied to sensitive sites, including military installations.
Read ↗
SEP 2025
404 MEDIA
One tool, hundreds of millions of phones, every day
A federal agency bought access to a database updated daily with billions of location records.
Read ↗
MAR 2026
TECHCRUNCH
The FBI confirms it buys location histories
The FBI director told the Senate the Bureau purchases commercially available data, including location histories, without a warrant.
Read ↗
JUN 2026
U.S. SUPREME COURT
Chatrie v. United States
The Court ruled that pulling Google location history through a geofence is a Fourth Amendment search. Data bought from brokers remains unaddressed.
Read ↗
WHY IT MATTERS
Every entry on this list started the same way: a phone announcing who and where it is. Laws change slowly and settings can be bypassed. Klōk removes the signal at the source.
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