French navy Strava security breach exposes Charles de Gaulle carrier position — northwest of Cyprus on March 13

Le Monde newspaper reported on Day 21 that a member of the French navy inadvertently revealed the exact position of the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier through a public Strava fitness tracking profile. The runner jogged in circles on a ship in movement on March 13 in the middle of the sea northwest of Cyprus, according to their public Strava data, while satellite images confirmed the carrier was in the immediate vicinity at the time. The same person had also been running in Copenhagen, Denmark in late February, across a bridge from Malmo, Sweden, where the Charles de Gaulle was anchored at the time — further confirming the reliability of the tracking data. France deployed the Charles de Gaulle and accompanying frigates to the Mediterranean in early March, shortly after US-Israeli strikes on Iran sparked the war. President Macron has described the deployment as 'purely defensive' in support of France's allies. The carrier has been in the eastern Mediterranean since March 9. The French armed forces told AFP that 'appropriate measures would be taken if the report was true,' noting that members of the navy were regularly reminded about security risks of fitness tracking apps. The incident echoes the 2018 Strava global heat map controversy that revealed locations of US military bases and patrol routes worldwide.