Marines can now wear fitness trackers in more military facilities

Marines who prefer to track their activity step-by-step are now allowed to wear personal fitness devices in secure spaces where sensitive material once prohibited such technologies.

Devices like the Fitbit, Jawbone’s UP, Nike’s Fuel Band and Garmin’s VivoFit can now be worn in spaces where collateral classified information and controlled unclassified information is processed, stored or discussed. The new rules are detailed in Marine administrative 274/16, which was signed Friday by Brig. Gen. Dennis Crall, the Corps’ chief information officer.

Marine Corps officials did not immediately respond to questions about the changes. The Navy approved a similar policy in September, and even issued fitness trackers to some sailors as a way to help the service monitor their workouts, diet and overall health.

While the Pentagon is careful to protect classified materials and communications within military facilities, emerging technologies like fitness devices have been forbidden under blanket protection orders. This new worldwide policy — coordinated between the Marine Corps’ Command, Control, Communications and Computers Department and Marine Forces Cyber Command — loosens the restrictions so Marines can wear approved fitness devices in certain secure locations.

The devices must be commercially available in the U.S. or through a military exchange, marketed primarily as fitness or sleep devices, and designated as a Federal Communication Commission Class B digital device.

Bluetooth is acceptable, as is GPS — if it is in the mode of “receive only.” Accelerometers, altimeters, gyroscopes, heart activity monitors, vibration features, and near-field communication capabilities are all good-to-go.’