French aircraft carrier’s location leaked by sailor using Strava on the ship deck

A French seaman’s public fitness app revealed the exact location of a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean – a shocking security blunder amid rising tensions in the Middle East, a report found.

The location of the Charles de Gaulle was exposed in the Mediterranean Sea near Cyprus after the young naval officer logged his 36-minute workout on his public Strava profile, allowing anyone to track the vessel and its fleet in real time, French outlet Le Monde reported.

Strava, which is used by 120 million people around the world, allows runners and cyclists to log and share their workouts online.

Data obtained by the outlet shows the sailor used his smartwatch to log a more than 4-mile run around the nearly 900-foot ship’s deck on March 13, placing the carrier about 62 miles off the Turkish coast about two weeks after US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran.

France had announced the carrier’s deployment on March 3.

At least one other public profile has been sharing geotagged workouts from another French Navy ship on an active mission – complete with snaps of the deck, crew members, and onboard exercise equipment.

The security breach comes as President Trump urges allied nations to beef up protections of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global trade route threatened by escalating Gulf tensions.

While the Department of War previously banned fitness-tracking apps and wearables, France has faced repeated headaches caused by Strava.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s security detail – along with those of US presidents and Russia’s Vladimir Putin – used the app as recently as last year, inadvertently revealing their identities through its location-sharing feature, the outlet reported.

In one instance, an agent assigned to then-President Biden went for a jog and traced his route during his 2023 trip to San Francisco for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The outlet was able to determine the hotel Biden was staying at during his West Coast trip based on the data that appeared on the agent’s Strava profile. 

The Armed Forces General Staff told Le Monde that the sailor violated digital security rules by sharing his run and vowed that “appropriate measures will be taken by the command.”