By now you are probably aware of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which is resulting in a huge humanitarian crisis in the country and widespread devastation caused by Russia’s indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas. It’s shocking, shameful, and has resulted in millions of Ukrainians trying to cross the border into friendly nations such as Poland and Moldova. With the country’s infrastructure being demolished more every day, Google has stepped in to announce that in partnership with the Ukrainian government, it is rolling out a rapid Air Raid Alerts system for all Android phones in the country which will alert people when an air raid has been detected.
Google’s system is supplementary to the current air raid systems in Ukraine, so it isn’t reinventing the wheel but rather trying to ensure a wider audience receives the warnings.
“The system leverages our low latency alert mechanism we built for earthquake alerts. The air raid system is supplemental to, and shares the same triggers used for, the country’s existing air raid alert systems. The system starts rolling out today and will ramp up to target all Android phones in Ukraine over the next few days. Thankful to our eng/product/UX teams for racing to get to a soln in short order”
Other than the Air Raid Alerts system, Google has been hard at work on the following:
- Google’s Threat Analysis Group has focused on the safety and security of its users in Ukraine and surrounding regions, observing activity from threat actors such as FancyBear and Ghostwriter.
- The development of methods where businesses in neighboring countries can flag if they are providing services such as free or discounted accomodation to Ukrainian refugees. As Google compiles the information it will make it possible for people to find these places on Search and Maps.
- Google’s spaces and resources, such as the Google for Startups Campus in Warsaw (Poland), will be made available for local NGOs to provide legal and psychological support to Ukrainian refugees. This is on top of Google’s $10 million committment to local organizations helping refugees arriving in Poland.
- Google is continuing to limit global recommendations for a number of Russian state-funded media outlets, such as the RT and Sputnik apps being removed from the Play Store, as stipulated by the EU’s Council Regulation.
- Google ads have already been paused in Russia, and the search giant has also paused the vast majority of its commercial activities within the country. This means that Russian-based advertizers, new Cloud sign ups, payment services, and monetization features for YouTube viewers in Russia have ceased. Free services such as Gmail, Search, and YouTube are still able to be used within Russia.
Finally. We try not to comment too much on current affairs here at TalkAndroid but the invasion of Ukraine by Russia is a reminder to America and Europe that democracy needs to be tended to diligently in order to survive. We hope that the Ukrainian people, and every other country in the world that is experiencing difficulty through aggression, sickness, or famine, are able to find safety and peace.
