Take This AirTag and Get Captured

It was reported (here) that Russian affiliated forces in Ukraine have sacrificed some militia to be taken prisoner so that they could help pinpoint key tactical locations for Russian/separatist artillery by carrying gps transponder-like devices while they are taken to rear areas for processing.

Thorough searching of prisoners for any kind of transmitting device is typically a standard operating procedure.  However, modern technology often moves faster than we can all be aware of.  Watches, phones, and the ‘network of everything’ can turn any very small and easily hidden device into a powerfully precise tracking transponder (think of the Apple AirTags) or eavesdropping bug.

Management of devices on the modern battlefield is certainly a challenge as people become more accustomed to carrying and using them on a daily basis.  Heat maps from the fitness app Strava revealed many ‘secret’ military locations due to the fact that soldiers working-out would, sometimes unknowingly, be transmitting their workout locations, routines and achievements to the social application that anyone could see (article here).

It is wise to believe that key terrorists captured by major governments and then ultimately released, for whatever reason, have been unwittingly turned into human transmitters.  It is likely that there have been, or will be, counter-intelligence operations that the opposing force adopts by using these pawns to lead those tracking them astray or into some sort of trap (think of how one of Osama bin Laden’s associates took his cell phone to deceive the US with respect to his location as he escaped from the Tora Bora area).  But, mostly the technology will make anyone that has been captured by an opposing force someone who cannot be trusted, irrespective of their ideological pureness.

There are many angles to the arms race(s), now we can add embedded devices versus the scanning for these devices, a la Mission: Impossible III.