The head of the Netherlands’ military intelligence service, the MIVD, inadvertently shared his home address and personal routines for years through a public account on the fitness platform Strava.
An investigation by de Volkskrant revealed that Vice-Admiral Peter Reesink, who has led the agency since February 2024, logged workouts visible to anyone on the internet between 2018 and 2025.
Activity logs exposed personal details
By reviewing his cycling and running activities, journalists were able to determine Reesink’s home address, where he kept his camper van, and the dates and locations of his personal vacations.
Maintaining a public social profile directly violates internal security guidelines established by the Ministry of Defence.
Reesink immediately made the profile private and requested its deletion after being contacted by reporters, explaining that he had uninstalled the app long ago and forgot the account remained active.
Warning on digital carelessness
The situation creates an uncomfortable contrast with recent security warnings issued by the defense chief.
In the MIVD annual report, Reesink cautioned that Russian intelligence threats were escalating and argued that many major organizations display a dangerous level of naivety regarding basic security procedures.
Data leaks linked to popular fitness tracking applications have repeatedly posed challenges for security personnel.
Previous investigative reports revealed that location data from similar software exposed sensitive deployment sites and home addresses of military personnel globally, including Dutch service members stationed overseas.
