# US military services disable advertising IDs on government devices

_Published Friday, September 4, 2026 at 3:07 PM EDT · Policy · Latest · Tier 1 — Major_

![US military services disable advertising IDs on government devices — Primary](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/28a6d4d584aaee15675af89663fbbe5829d4ad4b/399_0_3990_3192/master/3990.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=4104ffbce74c1feb8da3cae643abcc81)

US military officials told Senator Ron Wyden and Reuters that they have disabled advertising identifiers on ranges of government phones and computers.

The Air Force said it disabled them on computers and mobile phones two months ago; US Special Operations Command said it recently did so on Windows devices. The Army said mobile advertising IDs had been disabled since earlier this year. The changes follow reports that commercially available location data was used to target US forces in the Middle East.

## Sources

- [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/04/military-disables-phone-ad-trackers)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/46jmEeZSVBT1JsIlCHuldj
Published: 2026-09-04T19:07:14.300Z
Story chronology: 2026-09-04T13:44:14.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-10-20T00:01:15.867Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)