Google Earth threatens democracy

September 13, 2005 7:16 PM

Google Earth threatens democracy The planet's military bases apparently cannot hide from Google's all seeing eye.
posted by thecollegefear (29 comments total)

Maybe we could use Google earth to finally find those WMDs and Bin Laden!

/obligatory lefty snark
posted by papakwanz at 7:20 PM on September 13, 2005

Private vs public "shutter control" (related discussion).
posted by Rothko at 7:22 PM on September 13, 2005

Security through obscurity in the Really Real World™.
posted by nightchrome at 7:25 PM on September 13, 2005

Props to anyone who can find Pine Gap.
posted by Jimbob at 7:37 PM on September 13, 2005

I dunno about anyone else, but the first thing I mapped was Area 51.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:45 PM on September 13, 2005

So did I, crash, but I just wanted to be sure everything was where I had left it.
posted by yhbc at 7:50 PM on September 13, 2005

Props to anyone who can find Pine Gap.

ok
posted by WetherMan at 7:51 PM on September 13, 2005

"spokeschap " ?? One link crapfilter. No, no, allow me to amend that.

One crap linkfilter.
posted by stirfry at 7:57 PM on September 13, 2005

Survey of Soviet Bases has about 500 of those Godless commie airstrips, courtesy of Google Images.
posted by rolypolyman at 8:02 PM on September 13, 2005

Having lived on military bases for a good part of my childhood and a small part of my adulthood, I've taken great pleasure in google mapping all the places I used to run around in, checking out the airplanes, grenade ranges, tank pads, jeep trails and other fun things I've played in.
posted by furtive at 8:05 PM on September 13, 2005

In a world where information is going to flow ever more freely, we need to start basing our security strategies on something other than secrecy or obscurity. Opening people's eyes to that relatively early (though some, like Bruce Schneier, have been screaming it for years) is a valuable public service.
posted by sindark at 8:32 PM on September 13, 2005

Wow, WetherMan - I had no idea it was that close to Alice Springs.
posted by Jimbob at 8:50 PM on September 13, 2005

Information cannot threaten democracy; it is a vital ingredient.
posted by Eamon at 9:03 PM on September 13, 2005

Isn't it interesting that idiots are trying to stop the dissemination of information that was always available (if you had the $$). Why can large business and the government (that exists due to my taxes) get these images and yet I cannot? Come on, it is not as if a terrorist couldn't just hire a plan and fly over Lucas Heights or buy a SPOT/IKONOS/EROS image of these places.
posted by dangerousdan at 9:23 PM on September 13, 2005

Come on, it is not as if a terrorist couldn't just hire a plan and fly over Lucas Heights or buy a SPOT/IKONOS/EROS image of these places.

It's not like a terrorist is going to do much more than explode a truck bomb outside Lucas Heights anyway - all this on OMG 2m² RESOLUTION PICTURES OF OUR FACILITIES fear is stupid. In most cases, one could get all the information they need to cause a lot of damage from a street directory.
posted by Jimbob at 9:34 PM on September 13, 2005

Having lived on military bases for a good part of my childhood and a small part of my adulthood, I've taken great pleasure in google mapping all the places I used to run around in

Yah, I did that too. I found houses I used to live in, or nearby, in Arizona and Germany as a kid in the 70s.

The thing that grabbed me now was how small those bases are, especially the dinky ones like Hahn, even though they seemed just immense as a kid.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:27 PM on September 13, 2005

FTA:
India agrees. Reuters quotes an anonymous security official there as confirming that "the issue of satellite imagery had been discussed at the highest level but the government had concluded that 'technology cannot be stopped'."

Heh. The pleasures of having a Missile Man (tm) and an OSS-supporter for the President.

That said, I look forward to the day the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) open-sources its satellite imagery.
posted by the cydonian at 10:34 PM on September 13, 2005

as if terrorists need maps to fly into buildings or pentagons.

the military needs to get over themselves.
posted by tsarfan at 10:45 PM on September 13, 2005

As long as we're talking about overhead imagery of airbases, here's a TerraServer page on Area 51. (embedded animation)
posted by alumshubby at 5:04 AM on September 14, 2005

This thread shouldn't go without a mention of cryptome's eyeball series, which has been around for a while.
posted by sfenders at 5:38 AM on September 14, 2005

Survey of Soviet Bases has about 500 of those Godless commie airstrips

cleanliness is next to godlessness... (and I'm a fan of both)
posted by dreamsign at 5:57 AM on September 14, 2005

So I checked Washington DC and found everything there, except that the capitol building and related Senate and house office buildings were are pixelated. You could see they were there, but the resolution was very bad. It was clearly selectively applied to buildings and grounds, not the entire frame where the building was shown.
posted by Red58 at 6:00 AM on September 14, 2005

obligatory link to superior UI
posted by wah at 6:18 AM on September 14, 2005

You want planes?
posted by atomicmedia at 9:30 AM on September 14, 2005

I'm sure terrorists won't think there's anything important in an area if it's blurred out.

Just bomb all the blurry patches...
posted by tbonicus at 9:57 AM on September 14, 2005

atomicmedia: The boneyard at Davis-Monthan, right?
posted by alumshubby at 10:14 AM on September 14, 2005

You know you're a nerd when you can identify most of those plane types by their aerial view silhouette.

Sigh.
posted by zoogleplex at 2:29 PM on September 14, 2005

Only most? Pfft. If you can't ID just about all of the combat aircraft, you ain't no nerd.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:32 PM on September 14, 2005

I was understating. :)
posted by zoogleplex at 6:11 PM on September 14, 2005