Bodyguards ‘compromised Swedish PM's security' after uploading runs to Strava

Telegraph

09-07-2025

Bodyguards for Sweden's prime minister have been accused of putting his security at risk after revealing his location by uploading their workouts on the fitness app Strava.
The security service officers shared details of their runs and cycling routes on at least 35 occasions, exposing Ulf Kristersson's whereabouts, including where he goes jogging, his overnight trips and his private address, which is supposed to be secret.
Strava shows a map that a person can post showing the route run or walked or the public location where they exercise.
The Dagens Nyheter newspaper tracked more than 1,400 workouts carried out by seven bodyguards who were protecting people in government over the last year.
The posts were made from locations around the world, including military bases in Mali, close to the Ukrainian border in Poland and New York's Central Park.
On one occasion, a bodyguard posted details of a run in Norway when Mr Kristersson was meeting with Jonas Gahr Støre, the prime minister of Norway, and Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland.
The Swedish bodyguard later posted a picture of the three leaders running together on social media.
Another post revealed that the Mr Kristersson was in Åland, an autonomous region of Finland, on a private family trip in October last year.
Dagens Nyheter linked other information uploaded to Strava to the Swedish royal family, a former prime minister and Jimmie Åkesson, the leader of the Sweden Democrats party.
Sweden is plagued by gang violence and has the highest gun crime death rate in the European Union.
Sweden's security service, Säpo, said it was taking the findings 'very seriously' and taking measures to prevent it happening again.
A spokesman said: 'This is information that could be used to map the activities of the security service. In what way it could have had an impact we are now investigating.
'In this context it is also important to know that protection of our protected people is comprised of several layers, of which bodyguard protection is one. In our work we assume that certain information can be known in advance and measure protection based on that.'
A government office spokesman said they 'do not comment on security surrounding current or former prime ministers or cabinet ministers'.
Earlier this year, the newspaper Le Monde revealed that crew members of French nuclear submarines had given away their patrol schedules by sharing their workouts on Strava.
Another Le Monde investigation in October found the whereabouts of Joe Biden, the then US president, and Emmanuel Macron, his French counterpart, could be traced because their agents used the app while on duty.
In 2023, a Russian submarine commander was shot dead on his morning run after logging his route with Strava.‌ Stanislav Rzhitskiy was found with four bullet wounds in his back near the Olimp sport complex in Krasnodar, southern Russia.
‌The 42-year-old had commanded the Krasnodar submarine, named after the city, which forms a core part of Russia's Black Sea fleet.