San Francisco, April 19: Google has denied reports that it unblurred satellite Maps imagery in Russia to allegedly open access to Russia’s military and strategic facilities for Ukrainians.
A Twitter account named @ArmedForcesUkr tweeted a set of images that appear to show military equipment belonging to Russia.
“Now everyone can see a variety of Russian launchers, intercontinental ballistic missile mines, command posts and secret landfills with a resolution of about 0.5 meters per pixel,” claimed the Twitter handle that has been cited several times by the official Ukrainian Ministry of Defence account.
According to The Verge, the Twitter post was cited by The Moscow Times, and an English translation of the tweet went viral on social media.
“Google Maps has stopped hiding Russia’s secret military & strategic facilities. Allowing anyone in the public to view. Open sourcing all secret Russian installations: including ICBMs, command posts and more with a resolution of 0.5m per pixel,” read the English translation of the tweet.
Google has refuted the allegations made in the tweet.
“We haven’t made any blurring changes to our satellite imagery in Russia,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying.
While the circulating images are likely legitimate, “they were available on Google Maps long before the conflict in Ukraine,” said the report.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, Google had disabled its Maps’ live traffic data in Ukraine to protect users.