The war between Russia and Ukraine has drawn the attention of countries and people around the world, and with the development of technology and convenience, many military actions have been filmed by the public and uploaded to the Internet. With many technologies implementing instant data, foreign media found that Google Maps and Apple Maps inadvertently became the “live rooms” for the movement of war troops, and information on the movement of troops appeared on the maps of their own platforms.
Of course, such a situation emerged mainly from the extensive traffic implementation data from Google and Apple Maps applications. As you can see in the foreign media reports, the map data accurately points to traffic jams on the Russian side of the border, and the data was presented at the very beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, when Russian troops were actively moving into Ukrainian territory, and Apple Maps presented similar information.
Of course, Google Maps does not specifically indicate that the traffic situation is a troop movement, and the satellite imagery is not up-to-date. However, such information is registered on the map as a result of the implementation of the data, and when combined with the known details of the location of Russian troops, it is possible to approximate the direction of troop movements in the area, further allowing the media and the public to understand what is happening on the ground through the map data.
The “traffic jam” at the Russian border was “live” on the official Google Maps Twitter account, showing the situation on the road from Belgorod, Russia to the Ukrainian border at 3 a.m. The starting point was officially where the Russian armoured vehicle formations were seen on the Internet yesterday.
Of course, the fact that this has happened has led many people to question whether the technology in question has been put to a role that was not its original purpose and whether it has defeated the purpose for which it was developed. If Google Maps and Apple Maps were put to military use, we believe it is something that many people would not want to see. After all, this kind of data does not have any kind of supervision.
