Google Agrees to Blur Military Installations in Google Earth

When Google Earth was first created by Keyhole Inc, it lived in relative obscurity as an interesting but expensive tool. When Google bought out the company, they made the software free for the masses to use. Over time the feature set improved and the number of users of the software increased exponentially. Many power users were doing some very interesting this with the software, such as finding previously unknown ruins of ancient civilizations, and scouting out areas which some people might not want them to see. It was not long before many governments started to question Google Earth's unabridged satellite imagery.

The country of India had some particular issue with Google Earth. India was upset that some sensitive establishments of the Indian government could be seen clearly and without distortion. The country thought this was a threat to their national interest, and it makes sense that organizations that did not have India's best interest in mind could use the data to scout out installations. India opened a discussion with Google to see what could be done to rectify their situation.

Officials from India's ministry of science and technology met with representatives from Google Earth and have come to an agreement which makes both organizations happy. They came to a decision that they would carefully camouflage sensitive sites. The two groups believed that this would be a much better option than merely blacking out the sites, because that would draw attention to those sites.

Within the bounds of the agreement, the images will not be visible to the resolution of greater than 25-50 meters per pixel. The images will now look much more like older generation pictures provided by the Indian Remote Sensing Satellites (IRSS). In addition, Google Earth will distort building plans by adding structures which do not exist, or hiding existing structures and replacing them with solid ground. This could easily be done without attracting special attention to these sites, which include scientific laboratories, mines, military installations, and places of space and atomic research. Google Earth agreed to accept a list of sites which the Indian government would provide it.

Some say that this was a necessary step to prevent terrorism and other threats against a sovereign nation. Others contend that this will set a dangerous precedent, because it will allow any government organization who wants to hide something from its people to do so. Of course it's necessary to hide some installations from your average person with a camera in space, but there's a question of extent. Google Earth's future response to similar requests in the years to come will determine whether or not it will continue to be a useful tool.