Russian military bases and structures are visible thanks to Google Maps: on the Mountain View map service they are available to the public highly detailed, high-resolution satellite photos which show in detail various sites and areas of military destination of Russia.
According to a Twitter account of the Ukrainian armed forces, credited several times by the official one of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Google would have opened access to this material, as if it had been previously denied. The tweet, with attached images of Russian military sites, had an immediate response, resumed thousands of times on social networks, circulating rapidly on the Net, and was quoted by online publications such as the Moscow Times.
Google, however, categorically denied having changed the way it manages satellite photos concerning Russia: the invasion of Ukraine would not have caused a change of approach, leading to eliminating the blurring of images of areas and places. sensitive as are those in which there is the presence of military vehicles and infrastructures. A spokesperson for the company, Genevieve Park, has ruled out any hypothesis in this regard. This even if a tug-of-war is underway between Russia and Google and the Kremlin has insistently accused YouTube of spreading disinformation about the war and videos that endanger the safety of Russian citizens.
Indeed, satellite photos of Russian bases were already present and accessible on Maps before the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, as shown by an investigation by The Verge which also refers to the repertoire of images of the tweet posted by the account of the Ukrainian military forces.
In the meantime, many people have begun to identify places and sites of military interest for Putin’s country: among those identified there is also the Lipetsk air base12 kilometers away from the city of the same name, where it is possible to see disassembled airplanes, probably Mig-31 fighters, while in others they show experimental fighter jets Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut.
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States versus Google
As we now know, Google draws on various sources, like NASA and ESA (the European Space Agency) to enrich applications such as Maps and Earth with satellite photos. However, many countries try to protect themselves by introducing restrictions or authorizations limited to what governments think they can show, such as in the case of India and China. Furthermore, France, Belgium, the US and the Netherlands have asked Google to black out or pixelate images of military bases or detention centers, threatening legal action.
Israel obtained the blurring of many images taken by Google Street View activity while a request was made from Taiwan not to show new ones military installations on a disputed island in the South China Sea, claimed by China, Vietnam and the Philippines. Again: Spain, Greece and Poland have also obtained the blackout of the sites hosting military structures.
The problem is that the multiplication of satellite images available and the growing number of organizations and companies offering them and commercialize makes this censorship by states difficult, if not impossible.
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Blurred photos on Maps for privacy reasons
Finally, it is useful to remember that, for privacy reasons, a person can request to blur their home photo: just connect to Google Maps (where they have been, among other things, disabled functions on traffic and crowding of places in Ukraine), type in the address of the house and drag the yellow icon at the bottom right (that of Street View) to the entrance of the building. At this point, just click on Report a problem, center the part of the photo that you intend to obscure and ask to blur the image simply by indicating reasons for defense of privacy.