If it’s real intel, forward it. Let them think it’s secret.
Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
31–40 of 160 posts
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#32> “Out of an abundance of caution, we are removing user contributions like photos, videos, reviews and business information and all user-submitted places from Google Maps in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus since the invasion began, and are temporarily blocking new edits from being made,” a Google spokesperson said. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahemerson/russia-goo...
Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to restrict this activity geographically rather than based on accounts’ language?
What would be the geographic restrictions though?
“In ukraine”? Russian troops might be located there, also VPNs, and non-GPS geolocation is not exactly reliable (at least in my european experience where I’m essentially never geolocalised correctly and the subsequent localisation is always incorrect, any location within a few hundred miles of a border is a crapshoot).
“Out of ukraine or russia” would be trivially bypassed via a vpn as well.
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#33If true, what would the debate within Google be like about closing Google services / blacklisting accounts or devices, over the affected regions? For such a thing they probably have to get approval from the state department or someone else correct?
>For such a thing they probably have to get approval from the state department Google doesn't have to get approval from the state department to discontinue services.
True, but they have strong ties to the state department, and I imagine those conversations are happening. The right strategy might be non-obvious from the outside.
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#34Why would Russia mark airstrikes with some kind of obfuscated Google Maps entries? I hope your hometown stays safe, but I can't see how this makes sense.
Any agent/soldier can access it without a complicated permission or authorization structure. You don't need access to some spy satellite. All you need is a mobile phone, tablet or laptop. It would seem very effective to me.
Not to mention the entire logistics side seem to have broken down entirely so coms and digital services being out / unavailable would be… unsurprising.
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#35If true, what would the debate within Google be like about closing Google services / blacklisting accounts or devices, over the affected regions? For such a thing they probably have to get approval from the state department or someone else correct?
>For such a thing they probably have to get approval from the state department Google doesn't have to get approval from the state department to discontinue services.
No I mean don't think they would, in a regular case...But for such a thing, where say it affects a target/person of interest/VIP who is under surveillance/protection, or, say in this case, where it's an action in and that directly affects a war-zone, I imagine there be such a requirement...
I mean, if anything, you can imagine the situation where say CIA was doing some operation in a country, and at the same time there was some sort of mass disinformation campaign by some "enemy" actor, and Google decided to discontinue services, but that interfered with the CIA's operation somehow, maybe by cutting CIA off from intelligence and capability against the actor. So you imagine that it would be desirable there would be some co-ordination of things, to avoid stepping on toes. I mean, right? That's reasonable, isn't it?
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#36It feels very improbable that a government would be using google maps for this. It feels even more improbable that even if they are, removing a mark from google maps would prevent them from launching an actual air strike. Surely a target important enough to "mark" would be worth finding an alternative way to target in case a bunch of keyboard warriors figure out your nefarious plan. None of this makes sense. I know i…
Yesterday someone who had been right about other things told me on Twitter that Russia has been running their communication in cleartext at least until recently.
I don't listen in to Ukrainian radio so I cannot verify but I am sure someone here knows more if they want to tell. It seems at this point it is already a very open secret.
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#37It feels very improbable that a government would be using google maps for this. It feels even more improbable that even if they are, removing a mark from google maps would prevent them from launching an actual air strike. Surely a target important enough to "mark" would be worth finding an alternative way to target in case a bunch of keyboard warriors figure out your nefarious plan. None of this makes sense. I know i…
It feels very improbable that a government would be using google maps for this.
Does it? My 'knowledge' of war comes from movies, TV and video games, which is obviously nonsense. I know that. I know that my belief that military tech is a bit like the things you see in Call of Duty or a Marvel blockbuster is wrong, and that it's all special effects and creative license to make things look 'cool'. Learning that soldiers on the ground in an active warzone pull out a phone and use Google Maps wouldn't actually surprise me at all. They're cheap, reliable, and understood by everyone. The only reason I can think of not to use it is because Google can be forced to block your access. Maybe they don't care about that?
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#38Why would Russia mark airstrikes with some kind of obfuscated Google Maps entries? I hope your hometown stays safe, but I can't see how this makes sense.
These marks could be set by ukrainian citizens wanting to return the glorious days of Soviet Union.
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#39How about adding reviews to those places that tell the truth about the whole situation? Looks like it could get to the right people.
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#40Targeting airstrikes theory aside, wonder what Google thinks of the potential that Russian soldiers are using Maps to navigate while invading Ukraine?
I'm the exact opposite of a military expert, but the conflict being extremely asymmetric, a service like Google Maps helps the Ukranians side more than it helps the Russians.
Does it though? Maps in general help me more when I'm new somewhere. I wonder if it couldn't be helpful for Google Maps and other services to block out for example all small roads, inner cities, etc. Maybe I'm wrong though; why would maps help the defenders more?