Snapchat Turns Off Public ‘Heatmap’ For Ukraine as ‘Safety Precaution’ Amid Russia’s Invasion
To counter Russia’s ever-increasing military offensive, Snapchat has announced that it will temporarily disable its “heat map” feature for war-torn Ukraine, so the app will no longer show how many snaps are being taken in specific locations. According to The Verge, Snapchat stated that the move is a “safety precaution,” and that a curated public feed of snaps submitted by Ukrainians will remain on the platform.
Normally, the ‘Snap Map’ displays a color code to indicate the number of people posting public images in a given area. In practice, this means you can get a good sense of where the majority of Snapchat users are concentrated.
Other companies have taken similar steps to make Ukrainians’ movements more difficult to track. Google and Apple both turned off live traffic information in Ukraine.
While this publicly available data isn’t usually useful, in a wartime scenario where Russia might want to track evacuations or citizen movements, it’s probably best if the feature is disabled, according to the report.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Snapchat has taken a few additional steps. According to a company news post, it has stopped showing ads in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, and will not sell ad spots to Russian entities.
