Using google maps to track Russian troops

[poochyena]

Yea, yea, has a political backdrop, but this is about the bigger picture of the technology, not this specifically relating to Ukraine/Russia.

 

Summary

A team in California was able to track Russia's movements into Ukraine using google maps.

 

Quotes

Quote

It was 3:15 a.m. in Belgorod, Russia — much too early for a traffic jam, thought Jeffrey Lewis, who was watching the traffic pileup on Google Maps.
 

Lewis, a professor specializing in arms control and nonproliferation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif., was monitoring Google Maps with a research team of students he mentors as part of a project to analyze images taken from space. He and his team realized what was happening: a Russian armored unit was moving toward the border with Ukraine.

 

By combining Google Maps traffic information with a radar image that showed troops, Lewis and his team realized an invasion was underway hours before the news became public and from thousands of miles away in California. Russia officially announced its assault on Ukraine on Thursday morning, which President Biden called “unprovoked and unjustified.”

 

 

My thoughts

What a crazy way to use google maps. I never imagined using traffic data from google maps in such a sophisticated way. Imagine invading a country and having your army's locations revealed by google maps. This is absolutely a tactic that will be heavily used in the future. As he says, its not even tracking the Russians specifically, but the people around them, so even though the soldiers may have no tracking devices, the people around them do, and their affects on them, even just causing a traffic jam, alerts others to their position.

 

Sources

https://wapo.st/3HxfZyw

[suicidalfranco]

Google bad. Stop using Google.

[Doobeedoo]

Google be like "yes yes more data".

[PocketNerd]

6 hours ago, Doobeedoo said:

Google be like "yes yes more data".

Google: *makes gross slurping noises*

[poochyena]

Update

Google temporarily disables Google Maps live traffic data in Ukraine

https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-temporarily-disables-google-maps-live-traffic-data-ukraine-2022-02-28/

[Dominik W]

Quote

To clear up a misconception: The traffic data is most likely NOT from soldiers carrying smartphones. Instead, civilians are probably getting stuck at roadblocks and @googlemaps is recording that.

To add on: I saw somewhere online that the Russian soldiers had their personal phones taken. I don't remember where I saw/heard that, so for now take it with skepticism considering the amount of misinformation about the war.

[Shreyas1]

There's no info here that Ukraine/NATO knows already, probably

[tikker]

It's pretty cool. It also makes for great potential decoy tactics given that you can createa a "traffic jam" by hauling around a bunch of phones in a little wagon as well (if they haven't somehow patched that).

 

I was about to ask if the military was really that ignorant about who and what their gear phones home to, but then luckily the second tweet made it make more sense.

[Quackers101]

*when google already banned it for their own army*

when a super power holds a bit too much power and data.

 

if this is a good thing or not.

[Commodus]

1 hour ago, Quackers101 said:

*when google already banned it for their own army*

when a super power holds a bit too much power and data.

 

if this is a good thing or not.

Google's suspension of live traffic data is generally a good thing. It does make it harder to track Russian movements and is less convenient for Ukranians (though they can use live traffic in nav mode), but this also makes it harder for Russia to spot Ukranian troops and fleeing civilians. I wouldn't want Ukranians to die because Russia noticed a convoy in advance.

[christian lehnert]

Interesting. Would be a nice feature.