All’s Fair in Love and War: Tinder and the World of International Intelligence
Robert Cole
We are very far from the age in which troop numbers were estimated by counting campfires and tents. Armies can move far more unobtrusively over much greater distances, and entire garrisons can be hidden from opponents through all manner of tricks. As long as the soldiers in question don’t bring their phones or other smart devices with them on deployment.
Over the past several years, militaries across the world have increasingly been faced with the difficulty of keeping large-scale troop movements and combat exercises secret as access to smartphones among both soldiers and local populations rises. In one notable incident during the Polish border crisis during the late autumn of 2021, hundreds of Polish soldiers appeared on the Tinder dashboard of Belarusian women on the opposite side of the border, indicating the extent of the Polish deployment to respond to the situation. More recently, Russia banned its soldiers from using smartphones while deployed after internet activity by members of its armed forces was widely circulated as evidence of the troop buildup along the Ukrainian border.
NATO too has taken action to prevent intelligence leaks from soldiers on the internet. In an investigation in 2018, researchers working with NATO’s Strategic Communications Center of Excellence were able to trick soldiers participating in a joint exercise into revealing details of the exercise and even act against orders. Though many details of this study are not publicly available, the researchers have stated that they primarily used Facebook open-source data and accounts pretending to be associated with the joint exercise to learn about individual service members and trick or coerce them into revealing sensitive information. The whole operation cost only sixty dollars, demonstrating that nearly anyone in the world with access to the internet could replicate their work. Indeed, similar techniques have been used by Pakistani intelligence officers against Indian Armed Forces troops, utilizing dating app “honey pots” to trick soldiers into sending them pictures of military equipment, Indian military bases, and other potentially sensitive information. The Indian military subsequently banned an array of apps for its military personnel, including most dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble.
While such measures may be successful at curtailing activity by military personnel, it is much harder to stop posts by civilians. As the situation along the Ukrainian border continues to escalate to a potential shooting war, there will undoubtedly continue to be tons of civilian-filmed footage coming out. Modern warfare is unique in that nearly every element of it is documented, which should give world leaders pause before starting a military action and can serve as a tremendous resource for recording the terrible inhumanity of armed conflict. However, as the various intelligence operations described above indicate, not everything online is what it claims to be. Savvy observers of international events should be prepared for a wave of doctored and misleading footage to hit the web at the onset of any conflict, and should be cautious when sharing any footage that cannot be verified. Additionally, if any readers happen to find themselves on a foreign battlefield any time soon, remember to avoid all thirst traps. Just like with news stories, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.