Perth to Rottnest Island swimming competitors tracked by GPS via phones for days in privacy breach
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Worrying discovery that hundreds of swim event competitors were GPS tracked on their phones in Australia and abroad for days afterwards in an embarrassing privacy issue.
- Swimmers’ location tracked with smartphone app
- A swimming event revealed locations four days later
- The Perth to Rottnest Swim app kept tracking them
Swimmers who competed in a cross-channel race had their locations tracked via the event’s app for another four days after it ended, with organizers apologizing for the “oversight”.
A smartphone app had kept track of the competitors throughout the day as they took part in the 19km South32 Rottnest Channel Swim which started in Perth last Saturday.
But the app continued its tracking of participants until Wednesday, when screenshots of a live image of participants’ real-time locations were posted on social media.
The image on the app showed numbered groups of people, teams and support teams on a map scattered across Perth, Australia and other countries after competitors left the event.
The organizers apologized for not turning off the tracking feature at the end of the race, admitting that it was due to an “oversight”, the Western Australia informed.
An app had been keeping tabs on the competitors throughout the day as they took part in the 19km South32 Rottnest Channel Swim (pictured) which started in Perth last Saturday.
The app continued its tracking of participants until Wednesday, when screenshots of a live image of participants’ real-time locations (pictured) were posted on social media.
It was turned off as soon as the organization was alerted to the blunder, a said the spokesman.
More than 2,500 swimmers had signed up for the Cottesloe to Rottnest Island race, including competitors from 10 countries.
But it’s not clear how many of them saw their privacy compromised.
Only contenders who had voluntarily signed up to be tracked with their smartphones during the day were exposed to the privacy breach.
Social media fired up about the bug, with some people commenting that the vulnerability of swimmers’ data could lead to outsiders accessing their personal data via social media cross-checking.
“If you’re ever looking for a visual representation of the average person’s privacy and security awareness, that’s a great screenshot,” said one commenter.
Competitor Christine Murray, who was ranked 16th overall in the individual category, said there were problems before the event even started.
“It was a topic of conversation before the race among some of the swimmers, as we also got to see the locations of a lot of people two or three days before,” he said.
The image on the app showed groups of numbered individuals, teams and support teams on a map scattered across Perth (pictured), Australia and other countries after the competitors left the event.
More than 2,500 swimmers had signed up for the Cottesloe to Rottnest Island race (pictured), including competitors from 10 countries
“It should be brought out in the open, as it could cause some serious problems.”
She said it was “mildly concerning” as the locations were accurate.
Meanwhile, the organizers of the iconic event said that users could disable the location sharing feature at any time.
Sharing was not required, but was highly recommended for safety purposes that day.
“We sincerely apologize to participants who may have been affected by this and will be making procedural changes to ensure this does not happen again at future events,” the spokesperson said.
“The safety of all participants is the number one priority for the organizers of the South32 Rottnest Channel Swim.”