Sometimes we do not realize the power of the tools we use in our day to day life until these types of situations arise. And it is that a team of researchers was able to realize the Russian invasion of Ukraine even before it was widely known by the public , and all this through Google Maps and radar images. The use of military satellites was not necessary, nor was a live TV broadcast. People could find out the status of the invasion simply by going into Google Maps and viewing the current state of traffic.
This Google function uses anonymous location data that is obtained through Android terminals and thus be able to show a real state of traffic on roads and paths, as well as stores and locations that are at their maximum capacity. This data could be potentially dangerous at this point, as it would be showing the progress of the Russian invasion.
- At the beginning of the invasion, it was possible to spot unusual traffic jams that coincided with the advance of Russian troops on Google Maps.
- Google notes that the decision to disable these features was made to protect the safety of local users after consultation with the Ukrainian authorities.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was detected earlier by Google Maps: it has forced the deactivation of real-time traffic in the country
Dr. Jeffrey Lewis was surprised to see so much traffic at 3:15 in the morning on Google Maps, at which time, indeed, Russian troops began to invade Ukraine from the border .
An even more effective tool than we think
Too early for so much traffic, this professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California thought. And it is that on February 23 at around 3:15 in the morning, both he and his students noticed unusual traffic on the road that went from Belgorod to the Ukrainian border.
After Russian military vehicles and tanks were sighted in the same location by the Capella Space ground observation group, Lewis's team was only required to keep an eye on Google Maps. " In the old days, we would have depended on a reporter to tell us what was happening on the ground, and today you can open Google Maps and see people fleeing Kiev, " Lewis told the Washington Post .
Traffic information will be temporarily disabled in Ukraine
This fact has served Google to temporarily disable this feature in Ukraine , in order to maintain the safety of its local community after consulting with regional authorities. In this way, both real-time traffic and information about how full the country's stores and restaurants are will no longer appear in the application.
To provide traffic information, Google uses real-time location data from your mobile device to map traffic conditions. Lewis commented through Twitter that all the traffic shown on Google Maps did not come from the mobile phones of the soldiers in the military vehicles, but from the civilians who were trapped in the barriers.
Although it is not entirely clear if Google is sending SOS alert notifications through its app, they do offer information about the metro lines in Ukraine , some of which are being used as shelters. The company comments that since this crisis, the use of Google Maps has obtained a significant peak in Ukraine.
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