Google Maps Palermo Street View
Eduviges Gearlds
Italian mafia boss Gioacchino Gammino escaped prison in 2002, fled to Spain, changed his name to Manuel and opened a restaurant and a grocery shop. After 20 years in hiding, he was found thanks to Google Street View
Similar claims were shared on other social media platforms, such as Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter). "Bizarrely enough, Police discovered Gammino's location was through a Google Street View image," one X post claimed. "Police must have known roughly where he was to search Google. It was not a random thing," one comment under the post observed.
Multiple reliable news outlets, such as The Guardian and the BBC, covered the arrest of Gioacchino Gammino. And in short, although investigators confirmed they used Google Street View to locate Gammino, they emphasized they were already on a strong investigative path, with Google Maps serving to verify their findings. Because of that, we have rated this claim as "Mostly True."
On Jan. 5, 2022, The Guardian published an article with the title "Italian mafia fugitive arrested in Spain after Google Street View sighting" that included an interview with the Palermo prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, who led the investigation. "It's not as if we spend our days wading through Google Maps to find fugitives," he told the Guardian, "There were many previous and long investigations, which led us to Spain. We were on a good path, with Google Maps helping to confirm our investigations":
The shop and the restaurant are now closed, but the police found a photo of Gammino, dressed in his chef's garb, on a still-existing Facebook page for La Cocina de Manu. He was recognisable by the scar on the left side of his chin. The restaurant's menu included a dish called Cena Siciliana or Sicilian dinner.
On Jan. 5, 2022, the BBC also published an article entitled "Italian mafia boss caught after Google Maps sighting in Spain," underscoring that investigators claimed "a Google Street View shot showing a man resembling Gammino standing in front of a grocery shop was key to tracking the fugitive."
Investigators applied age-progression technology to an old photo of Mr. Gammino to get a sense of what the fugitive would have looked like after 20 years, and identified the chef as the wanted man, General Altiero said.
Moreover, in the interview for The New York Times General Nicola Altiero, deputy director of Italy's Antimafia Investigation Department, underscored that while there had been other breaks in the investigation, Google Maps was a key tool that helped Gammino's rapid arrest:
Italian investigators contacted the Spanish police unit that hunts fugitives, and on Dec. 17, Mr. Gammino was arrested while he was walking on the street. General Altiero said there had been other breaks in the two-decade investigation, but that the discovery using the Google tools had been key to the rapid arrest of Mr. Gammino.
We have fact-checked other Google Maps-related stories in the past. For instance, in April 2013 we debunked a false Google Maps image captured a furtive corpse disposal. In August 2023 we investigated whether a cat in Szczecin, Poland, was among the city's top-rated tourist attractions on Google Maps. What's more, in June 2023, we fact-checked a rumor claiming that Google Maps was adding a feature that would allow drivers to challenge each other to a race.
Making a strong impression on our list of funny Google street views is this penguin that was caught in Western Australia, being pulled by a man on a penny-farthing bike. Click here to see it on Google street view.
We are getting a kick out of some of these funny Google street views! How about this one that features a bear getting ready to have his dinner in Kurile Lake, in Russia. Click here to see it on Google street view.
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Look Around is a technology featured in Apple Maps that provides interactive panoramas from positions along a number of streets in various countries.Look Around allows the user to view 360 street-level imagery, with smooth transitions as the scene is navigated. Look Around was introduced with iOS 13 at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2019. It was publicly released as part of iOS 13 on September 19, 2019.[1]
In early 2015, vehicles equipped with twelve cameras and lidar sensors were seen in a variety of locations in the United States. These vehicles were owned by Apple and were also seen in places like the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, and Sweden. In June 2015, Apple stated on its website that the vehicles were collecting data to improve Apple Maps. Also, Apple claimed to secure privacy by making faces and license plates unrecognizable. In 2018 Apple confirmed in an article that it was rebuilding Apple Maps, with the first results rolled out in California.[2]
During WWDC 2021 on June 7, 2021, Apple announced that Spain and Portugal would receive the new maps that day, with both Australia and Italy getting them later in the year.[5] On September 10, 2021, Apple published new map data in Andorra, Italy, San Marino, and Vatican City.[6] Apple began testing its new maps in Australia on October 19, 2021, publishing the new data on December 9, 2021.[7]
On March 7, 2022, Apple started collecting imagery in Greece. On March 4, 2022, Apple began testing its new map in Germany and Singapore. On April 21, 2022, Munich and most of Singapore received Look Around alongside the new maps.[8] On May 14, 2022, Apple started collecting imagery in Denmark. On May 29, 2022, Apple began testing its new map in France, Monaco, and New Zealand, with the maps launching on July 7, 2022.[9] On June 3, 2022, Apple announced a first round of imagery collection in Mexico, which began in August 2022. During Apple's WWDC event in June 2022, it was announced that eleven new countries would receive the new maps by the end of the year, including Belgium, Israel, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, and Switzerland.[10] The Look Around feature was enabled in all of Germany on July 25, 2022.[11]
Apple started testing its new map data in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and Saudi Arabia on August 5, 2022. In September 2022, Apple announced the start of image collection in Thailand, which began in October 2022. On November 2, 2022, Apple started testing its new map data in Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. The new data was released on December 15, 2022, alongside Israel, Palestinian Territories, and Saudi Arabia.[12]
On January 23, 2023, Apple began testing its new map data in Austria, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. On March 2, 2023, the new maps were launched in Finland, Norway, and Sweden.[13] On March 10, 2023, Apple began testing its new map data in Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia.[14] The new maps were released on April 6, 2023.[15] On April 17, 2023, Apple began surveying the United Arab Emirates. On May 2, 2023, Apple began testing its new map in Hong Kong, Slovakia, and Taiwan.[16] The new map data was published for these countries in June 2023.[citation needed] On July 31, 2023, Apple began testing its new maps in Denmark and Greece, with the map data officially launching on October 12, 2023.[17][18]
In iOS 14, Apple released a new feature called Refine Location in Apple Maps: if the app cannot otherwise get precise location information, it prompts the user to scan the surrounding area. This uses Look Around data to improve the accuracy of the current location.[20] As of May 2021, the following areas have received the Refine Location feature:
In iOS 15, Apple released a feature called AR Walking Directions in Apple Maps, where the user scans the surrounding area and will show directions. Much like Refine Location, this feature makes use of the surrounding area and improves the accuracy of directions. As of July 2023, the following areas have received AR Walking Directions:
We have a great respect for privacy and have built extensive features into our street level imagery technology to protect your privacy, in addition to giving careful consideration to the scope of our data collection.
The primary focus will be on public roads of commercial interest and areas with high concentration of points of interest (POIs). Street level images will be created using cameras mounted on clearly marked cars that will travel through selected areas. These images are recorded in the vehicles and are later transferred to a secure facility for image and privacy processing. Filming and location dates can be found above.
As the cars travel through public roads they collect street-level imagery of its surroundings. That imagery inevitably includes not only the roads themselves, road signs, landmarks and the like but also persons and license plates of cars which we blur before publication. We operate our street-level imagery activities so that we comply with applicable laws governing the acquisition and publishing of imagery and in accordance with our privacy policy.
We use industry-leading, automated software and advanced algorithms to detect and blur portions of images that may raise privacy concerns, including faces and license plates. The automated software and advanced algorithms are based on years of research investments.
Our internal testing has shown that the privacy algorithms and detection rates are among the best available in the industry. As with all automated approaches, there is a chance that some images may come through that should have been blurred. For those instances, after the blurred imagery has been made available to the public, we will provide internet-based services for individuals to identify and report concerns of any published images directly to us. Look for the reporting link where you saw the image.
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