Swedish Bodyguards' Fitness App Data Exposes Locations of National Leaders

Bodyguards assigned to protect Sweden’s top leaders unintentionally disclosed the secret locations of those they were tasked to safeguard by sharing their fitness activities on a popular app.

A recent investigation uncovered that the bodyguards protecting Sweden’s royal family and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson uploaded their running, cycling, and training routes to Strava, a widely used fitness application that maps and shares user movements. While the app fosters a global fitness community, its open data sharing has raised significant privacy and security concerns, particularly for government and military personnel.

This revelation adds to Sweden’s heightened security alert following a recent incident described as sabotage against an undersea cable. Over the past year, more than 1,400 workouts logged by seven bodyguards were tracked, revealing training sessions in locations such as the Alps, near Ukraine’s border with Poland, and a military base in Mali. Swedish security officials confirmed that some of these data points corresponded to secret service employees.

The fitness data exposed the prime minister’s private home address and unveiled details of a personal trip he took with his wife last October. Although Mr. Kristersson himself refrained from sharing his running routes, the information posted by his protective detail made it possible to deduce his favored paths.

Additionally, the data revealed a confidential high-level meeting in Norway last June involving Mr. Kristersson and the leaders of Norway and Finland, which had not been publicly announced. It also disclosed the movements and routines of other senior Swedish politicians, including two former prime ministers. The prime minister’s office declined to comment on the security implications.

The whereabouts of Sweden’s royal family and the opposition leader were also compromised through these fitness tracking disclosures.

Furthermore, a bodyguard’s run along a Tel Aviv beachfront corresponded with an unpublicized visit to Israel by Jimmie Akesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, a far-right political party. The party did not respond to requests for comment.