"An Artist Used 99 Phones to Fake a Google Maps Traffic Jam"

An artist named Simon Weckert created the Google Maps Hack to bring further attention to the potential ease at which malicious actors can fool a product such as Google Maps and other similar products. The Google Maps Hack project was prompted by an incident that occurred almost three years ago at a May Day demonstration in Berlin. During the event, Weckert saw that Google Maps was detecting a significant traffic jam despite the absence of cars on the road. Weckert later found that Google Maps was picking up on the mass of people present at the event, specifically through their smartphones. To replicate the incident, he decided to gather 99 phones and walk up and down with them on the road. The wagon of phones was successful at tricking Google Maps into showing a traffic jam. This article continues to discuss the Google Maps hack, how this project demonstrates the vulnerability of such systems to manipulation, and how these types of hacks can impact users' perceptions. 

Wired reports "An Artist Used 99 Phones to Fake a Google Maps Traffic Jam"