The Director of the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD), Vice Admiral Peter Reesink, has been left embarrassed following inquiries from Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. In 2025, while presenting the MIVD annual report, Reesink pointed out Russia’s increasingly aggressive stance and criticized the naïvety of major organizations regarding privacy sensitivity. However, it has now emerged that the admiral himself maintained a public Strava account for years. His biking and running workouts easily revealed where he lives, where he spent his holidays, and where he stores his camper van.
Maintaining a public Strava account violates Dutch Ministry of Defence guidelines, and Reesink’s data has since been made private. The fact that this information remained accessible between 2018 and 2025 – during a period of heightened international threat – is striking, especially given Reesink’s previous statements to de Volkskrant emphasizing the need for better privacy awareness.
In a response to de Volkskrant, Reesink stated he was unaware his Strava account was still active. He had signed up for the platform years ago and linked his bike computer, but deleted the Strava app “at a certain point.” In doing so, he forgot to delete the account itself or set it to private. As a result, all activity remained publicly visible under his full name. A spokesperson stated that Reesink “regrets the course of events” and has submitted a request to Strava to permanently delete the account.
Reesink’s Strava data revealed, among other details, several rides from the Frederik Barracks – the MIVD headquarters – to his home, as well as the location of his vacation spots and camper van storage facility.
