Google and Apple react to the war in Israel. They have disabled functions in GPS navigation
Tech giants react to the war between Israel and Hamas. The companies agreed to disable some features in navigation apps. This is intended to make it more difficult to track the military when it invades Gaza.
Google and Apple reportedly made some features in their navigation apps secret. This is related to a possible land invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces, which must remain secret.
Israel is only asking for Google and Apple Maps – it’s about one feature
Google Maps, Apple Maps and Waze have disabled reports on current traffic volumes in Israel and Gaza. Live information during peacetime informs about traffic jams and accidents. However, during war, they can be used to estimate troop presence, convoy routes, and other operational data.
According to Bloomberg’s sources, the Israel Defense Forces themselves, which are preparing for a land invasion of territory controlled by Hamas, were asked to disable the function. The applications will continue to take into account traffic jams, including: when calculating travel time, but they will not show places where there are a lot of cars or pedestrians.
“As we have done before in conflict situations and in response to the changing situation in the region, we have temporarily disabled the ability to monitor live traffic volumes. We do this for the safety of local communities,” emphasized a Google representative. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
It is worth recalling that companies turned off the vehicle and pedestrian traffic volume functions in Maps in a similar way also after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
More Hamas shelling on Israel
As we wrote in Wprost.pl, on Tuesday around 4 p.m. Hamas carried out a massive rocket attack on Tel Aviv and the surrounding area.
“The rockets appear to be part of massive fire from the Gaza Strip targeting the most populated areas of Israel. This is the third such salvo in less than two hours and appears to be the largest since the beginning of the war,” the Times of Israel reported.
Israeli forces are intensifying their bombing of targets in the Gaza Strip ahead of the expected invasion of the area. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that at least 704 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in 24 hours. According to the ministry’s spokesman, the death toll from the war has now risen to 5,791, and 2,360 of them are children. At least 16,297 people have already been injured.
