LOUISE DELMOTTE / AFP
Emmanuel Macron here on October 25, 2024.
POLITICS – Tell me where you are running, I will tell you where the president is. An investigation of Monde published this Sunday, October 27 reveals that Emmanuel Macron's bodyguards are endangering the Head of State by sharing their jogging sessions on the Strava application.
Strava is used by many running fans. It allows, thanks to geolocation, to record the route of a runner, to calculate the distance covered, the speed, but above all then to share the route in public as for a social network.
Except that The World discovered that agents of the security group of the Presidency of the Republic (GSPR) used this application during Emmanuel Macron's travels in France or abroad, which may compromise his security.
Macron's hotels identified 10 times
Explanations. If the head of state's travels are announced in advance, the place where he is staying must absolutely remain confidential. GSPR agents sometimes arrive several days before him to locate the location and it happens that they sleep in the same hotel as him.
Problem: these agents start their jogging right outside the hotel, return to the same place, then share their outing on Strava. It is therefore easy to identify where Emmanuel Macron will stay during his stay. This was particularly the case for a trip in 2020 to Vilnius in Lithuania, or in September 2022 for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth in London.
In total, the daily identified twelve members of the GSPR with a public profile on Strava, and more than 100 joggings between 2016 and 2024. Emmanuel Macron's hotel was found 10 times simply by dissecting the Strava profile of GSPR agents .
The Élysée minimizes
Contacted, the Élysée downplayed: “The consequences of the facts mentioned are very weak and have in no way an impact on the security of the President of the Republic. » And even adds: “The risk (is) completely non-existent. »
In 2018, the same problem had already been identified on American military bases abroad. The soldiers shared the route of their jogging on the Internet and allowed them to geolocate key places on the bases. Enough to allow enemies to better identify their targets.
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