Well, the Ukraine girls hide from satellites
... But not for long. Outdated imagery can only obscure your location for a bit
Last week, I posted this picture, featuring me and my cousin, the actress and musician Solomiia Melnyk, and asked my followers to find our exact location:
The first person to correctly identify our location was Matthew:
Matthew was very clever, immediately moving to my public digital footprint in order to look for clues. My distinctive outfit was helpful in this instance. But as Matthew and others quickly noted, the big challenge was that the satellite imagery for that location was seriously out of date!
Lee found us too, but had some trouble as well:
Ilya spoke to a mutual friend and was able to get much more up-to-date data via Sentinel:
If you look above, you can spot the little island in red (you can manipulate Sentinel data if you want to bring something out, by using different options — Ilya wanted to bring out the island, as it was harder to make out on the traditional RGB).
There were other tricks up Ilya’s sleeve, as he pointed out:
Sometimes, an alternative search engine will really bring the goods — being more helpful than Google.
As you can tell, when it comes to geolocation, a potential dead end can become just another doorway. Being able to step through such doorways is what distinguishes beginners from more experienced investigators. It is very fun, and very rewarding to be able to up your game — which is why I am very grateful to everyone who participated.
But that’s not the only thing going on here, of course. When Solomiia and I met up with our assorted crews, I wanted to show her and her partner how easy it is to identify the particular neighborhood we were hanging out in. Solomiia, as I’ve mentioned, is a performer. For people like her, potential stalkers and other weirdos can be a constant worry.
When I was getting us in position, she asked me if I was sure the internet would be able to find us. After all, the embankment we were standing on was so new. I told her yes, absolutely. And I was right.
My job is not to make you paranoid with these exercises. My job, again, is to point out that even when standing in a recently changed landscape or cityscape — you’re going to be geolocated either way. Maybe it will take a little bit of extra time, but the outcome will always be the same. Depending on your boundaries and privacy concerns, it’s something to keep in mind.
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