Google Maps Disables Live Traffic Data in Israel and Gaza

Google Maps and Waze have disabled dwell site visitors updates for areas of Israel and the Gaza Strip on the request of the Israeli army, in response to a Bloomberg report. The dwell knowledge software was eliminated forward of a possible floor invasion for the security of native communities.

“As we have done previously in conflict situations and in response to the evolving situation in the region, we have temporarily disabled the ability to see live traffic conditions and busyness information out of consideration for the safety of local communities,” a Google spokesperson mentioned to Gizmodo in an announcement.

Live site visitors info can reveal particulars about troop actions or the place there are plenty of individuals gathered. The expertise aggregates nameless location knowledge to point out the place there are site visitors delays. Last yr, Google disabled live traffic in Ukraine as a method to guard residents when Russian forces invaded the nation.

Early within the Ukraine battle, civilians used Google Maps to observe the Russian invasion hours earlier than it was introduced by Vladimir Putin, in response to a Motherboard report. One open-source intelligence (OSINT) knowledgeable and school professor noticed a site visitors jam in Russia utilizing the dwell site visitors layer on Google Maps.

For customers within the affected areas of Israel and Gaza, a pop-up on Waze reads, “Due to the security situation: Other drivers, traffic jams, and other alerts will not be displayed,” in response to a 9to5Google report. Waze seems to nonetheless be absolutely practical in different elements of Israel, resembling Tel Aviv, whereas dwell site visitors knowledge in Google Maps has been disabled country-wide.

Google Maps and Waze customers within the area will nonetheless have the ability to use the apps for navigation and proceed to obtain estimated instances of arrival based mostly on dwell circumstances whereas omitting specifics about the place site visitors jams are situated.

Apple Maps has additionally reportedly shut off its dwell site visitors options in response to GeekTime, an Israeli tech publication that was the primary to identify the incident. Apple didn’t instantly reply to Gizmodo’s request for remark.