(Aris Messinis / AFP/Getty Images)
Google has temporarily switched-off its various mapping features in Ukraine, after getting to know that the tools used to give live updates about traffic had been being used to track activity at reported sites of Russian attacks in the country.
Google Maps’ live traffic function works by siphoning data from smartphones with the app installed, derived in real-time from users who’ve their location services. The function can then examine how many cars there are in addition to the velocity they are travelling at.
The Company has confirmed the move to Vice World News, informing the publication that disabled traffic data live in maps for Ukraine to give priority to Ukrainian’s safety after talking to local authorities.
The function was being used by a few to detect army operations there.
One of these observers was Jeffrey Lewis, a non-proliferation professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, who said he was witnessed an attack in the conflict, even before the Russian President Vladimir Putin announced operations there, last week.
Lewis said that he believes him and his team “were the first humans to identify that the invasion was underway.” Google’s choice to disable the function Lewis and others had used to witness the invasion comes a day after the Ukrainian highway agency called on its residents to dismantle road signs.
The agency has intended to confuse Russian troops, the agency made their announcement on Facebook, posting: “The enemy has a pathetic connection (direction), they don’t focus on the terrain. Let’s help them get straight to hell.”
Since the dispute began, Google has taken other steps in response. Google-owned YouTube has blocked Russian-owned and funded media companies from monetizing, and Google soon followed suit to block the same types of companies from monetizing their websites, apps and videos.
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