In a major breach of security, members of Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s personal protection team have openly monitored their activity using popular fitness tracking app Strava, Swedish media revealed on Tuesday.
Swedish Security Service (Säpo) bodyguards inadvertently exposed sensitive information through the fitness tracking app Strava on at least 35 accounts, allowing users to trace Kristersson’s movements, residence, jogging routes – even his running pace, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter reported.
Seven Säpo agents responsible for Kristersson’s protection were found to have left their activity logs public, which allowed the Swedish daily to map high-level officials’ past locations.
The exposed data not only concerns current PM Kristersson but also includes information related to former Prime Ministers Magdalena Andersson and Stefan Löfven, the royal family, and far-right Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson.
Following the revelations, the Strava profiles in question were either locked or taken offline. The Swedish Security Service said it was going to review its procedures.
“We are taking action to ensure that protocols are followed,” said Carolina Björnsdotter Paasikivi, head of Säpo’s security division. “I can’t go into internal measures, but steps are being taken to prevent this from happening again.”
No direct threat related to this leak has been reported so far.
In October 2024, Le Monde revealed that French President Emmanuel Macron, the then US President Joe Biden, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin faced similar issues as their bodyguards recorded their runs on the fitness application.
Strava counts more than 150 million users from 185 countries, according to the platform’s website.
Claudie Moreau contributed reporting.
(vib)
