Google disables Maps traffic data in Ukraine to protect citizens

Photo by SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images

As the country of Ukraine is being invaded by Russia, the live traffic features on the maps have been temporarily disabled.

The features use anonymous location data collected from phones to show where there are traffic delays and which businesses are busy. The data could offer insight into the progress of the invasion. An open source intelligence expert said he saw signs of the Russian invasion early last Thursday after spotting traffic jams at the Ukrainian border.

Professor Jerry Lewis of the Middlebury Institute said last week that they were the first people to see the invasion.

The disabling of these features was done to protect local users, according to the report. Live traffic information will still be available to drivers using turn-by-turn navigation features in the region, despite the fact that the features have been disabled from global access. It is not clear if these features have ever been disabled.

Image: Google Maps

Map services collect location data that can offer surprising insights. The location of several US military bases was accidentally revealed on a map released by fitness tracking app Strava. Images and videos from the frontline of the Iraq War have been collected bySnapchat. With or without location data, information shared in warzones via social media has become a vital tool for open-source investigators, journalists, and others.

This data needs to be combined with other sources to provide reliable information. In the case of the traffic jams spotted outside of Ukraine last Thursday, investigators were already looking at the area using satellite imagery. The data on the phone comes from people stopped at roadblock, not soldiers using phones.

OSINT investigator Lewis said last week that big data companies don't want to face how useful their data can be. If the Russians were able to do something similar to spotting an offensive from Ukranians, it would be less cool.