obsfucation of buildings on google earth - counter productive ?

discussing the pros and cons of the " blacked out building " syndrome this aft , and like all our achahol lubed discussions - it went down hill fast

thier view was :

10 years ago we had nothing even approaching the internet as it stands today , so even a " nerfed " app like google earth is still a fabulous tool - and free


my view - is that its a total waste of time [ blanking out buildings ]

yup - but the end we were at quite crossed puropses , but thats how it goes sometimes

but IMHO - the stated reasons [ security ] is a waste of time and effort , that only inconveniences the honest

a hypothetical terrorist who wishes to plan an attack on NYC can use a variaty of apps / resources to replace the blanked data on google , flight sim games still have MS flight sim 2000 pro , etc have very realistic urban landscapes and are availiable on ebay , etc etc

and even restricting yourself to google earth - if you ` memorise ` the profiles of the buildings - just from shape - you have a much better idea of the topography

i have no illusions that google will " see sense " but we can hope

To believe terrorists will be deterred by this "blocking of key infastructure" just makes google and whoever else run this internet look like a mockery. If terrorists are to attack buildings they wish to, no amount of blocking and hiding will save us. That's just the spineless way out of things.

They can try and hide things as much as they want, but at the end of the day the government is run by the people and will FALL by the people. It may just take a bit of time for the majority to wake up.

Danny

By blocking out the buildings, or as some other map services do, blur them, it only makes it more apparent what the major targets are. Just look for blacked out buildings... those are the important ones.

well, i went and used google earth to look at area 51, and the only thing blacked out was what appeared to be a B-52, i knew because i could see the shadow under the blacked out parts

I have also noticed that originally the online google map had the white house terrain compyeter added with bushes and trees surrounding the entire white house. Litterally drawn in all around it. it also had the roof of the white house blocked out. Although in the google earth app, it was normal. I'll have to look back to google earth to see if it was recently updated.

I couldn't agree more. If you want to find the Pentagon, look up the address. Although, I do like google earth, just for zipping over Davis-Monthan, and surveying the mothballed aircraft.

Hm. I was giggling over the obfuscated roof of the White House a few months ago, when my hubby pointed out that it was so that you couldn't see the defense systems on the roof. I noticed some other buildings in DC had their roofs blocked, too.
I think Google is doing the right thing. It won't stop a determined terrorist, of course; but it will stop the random nutball from getting ideas. And I think any deterrent of random nutballism is a good thing.