14 DAY TRIAL // Google has recently announced that its Android devices would be offered to offer air raid warnings to users in Ukraine, therefore providing them with one extra way to get to safety in a timely manner.
The warnings will be bundled with Android, and Google says it has specifically worked with the Ukrainian government on this feature.
Ukraine already has a warning system, and Google says its native solution is based on the original notifications sent by the government.
“Tragically, millions of people in Ukraine now rely on air strike alerts to try to get to safety. At the request, and with the help, of the government of Ukraine, we've started rolling out a rapid Air Raid Alerts system for Android phones in Ukraine. This work is supplemental to the country's existing air raid alert systems, and based on alerts already being delivered by the Ukrainian government,” Google explains.
More sanctions
Google has also announced that it’s pausing most of its commercial activities in Russia, after the company originally pulled its ads in the country.
The decision comes as a new sanction against Russia, though on the other hand, free services like YouTube continue to be available in the country.
“Following our announcement last week that we paused Google ads in Russia, we’ve now paused the vast majority of our commercial activities in Russia – including ads on our properties and networks globally for all Russian-based advertisers, new Cloud sign ups, the payments functionality for most of our services, and monetization features for YouTube viewers in Russia. We can confirm that our free services such as Search, Gmail and YouTube are still operating in Russia. We will continue to closely monitor developments,” Google said.
The company explains it also noticed increased activity from threat actors, including FancyBear, a group that has previously been linked with the Russian government.