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What’s new: A report that multiple companies are offering governments the ability to geolocate Starlink terminals.
Why it’s important:
- Security concerns – an adversary could target, kidnap, kill, etc. users.
- Privacy concerns – user location data is a valuable commercial commodity. It could be used for marketing, gaining advantage in the marketplace, etc.
- This capability is being marketed to governments. It could also be easily marketed to transnational criminal organizations, terrorist groups, or someone who just doesn’t like you very much.
- Governments are also users of Starlink.
- These kinds of issues are important when discussing PNT, alternatives to GNSS, etc.
What else to know:
- Starlink is a two-way system which is part of the reason terminals can be geolocated.
- GNSS is a one-way broadcast so there is no ability to geolocate/track users, except…
- There are some specialized Bei Dou receivers that are also transmitters which can communicate with the constellation and be tracked.
Companies say they can track Starlink users. Should the government be worried?
The same satellite network used by activists and federal agencies alike may be easier to monitor than many users realize.
A handful of technology companies now claim that they can track and identify users of Starlink, the satellite internet communications service operated by SpaceX, according to a spate of new documents. These services not only raise privacy questions for Starlink consumers, but also a growing number of government agencies that deploy SpaceX’s service for internet and communications networks.
Sales documents, highlighted recently by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, detail how software might be used to monitor terminals used to access the SpaceX internet service. At least two companies named by Haaretz, TechTarget and Rayzone, appear to be marketing tools that use a variety of data sources to surmise where Starlink terminals might be operating. The tools seem to be designed for government clients, per Haaretz, and aren’t designed to access or exploit any SpaceX system directly. Fast Company was also able to identify a website for a third company, Shoghi, advertising Starlink user identification services for government clients.
