Is Google Map/Earth Helping the Terrorists?

After I saw this:
Google Maps Street View
And this:
Implementing StreetView Into Google Earth
Apparently street view will be integrated into Google Earth allowing faster and wider access.

I began to worry about the benefits and dangers of Google Maps.
Street View allows people to browse almost live conditions of streets in a first person view. It is very detailed.

The government took special precautions against this by blurring out and photoshopping the top of the White House and many other buildings.
But what about other governments, such as the Chinese and European critical locations? I don't think that Google is going to help them.

This is really careless, as Google Earth and Google Map gets more and more advanced in imagery and 3-D detail, terrorists are probably laughing in their little bases.

Seriously, using Street View a terrorist can plant bombs at exactly where they want to cause destruction. I could see the Empire State building topple and maybe even some populated area getting annihilated.

Google Earth will only make the terrorist's job easier in my oppinion. So why don't we just go back to the plain old streets and square buildings? Are people really that demanding?







[edit on 3/31/2008 by die_another_day]

I guess they (the terrorists) must have the blueprints for the building they plan to bomb, which Google surely won't give them. How can streets and such make anything easier? You would still have to know about security cameras, police etc.

Yeah I know, ever since Google earth was created I was a little hesitant on the logic of the system, surely someone could use Google earth as a simple tool to seek out places where high ranking military and political leaders live and work

A related issue was raised last October in the Guardian:

Palestinian militants are using Google Earth to help plan their attacks on the Israeli military and other targets, the Guardian has learned.

Members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group aligned with the Fatah political party, say they use the popular internet mapping tool to help determine their targets for rocket strikes.

"We obtain the details from Google Earth and check them against our maps of the city centre and sensitive areas," Khaled Jaabari, the group's commander in Gaza who is known as Abu Walid, told the Guardian.

Abu Walid showed the Guardian an aerial image of the Israeli town of Sderot on his computer to demonstrate how his group searches for targets.

guardian.co.uk | Google Earth used to target Israel

Just four days later it was noted on a blog:

A tipster to Newsbusters shares the following info: A search of Google maps under "Israel" reveals a map that is completely devoid of any detail. Yet, neighboring Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and even Turkey all have cities and roads noted.

The Colossus of Rhodey | Google maps: No info for Israel

In December it was further noted on another blog:

I was surprised when I tried locating some Israeli cities for a history course and noticed that Google Maps is noticeably lacking any info on Israel. Both Google Maps and Microsoft Live Maps know that Jaffa (formerly an ancient city and battle site of the Crusades) is now a neighborhood in Tel Aviv.

What Google Maps fails to display are the many roads and other towns in Israel. I kept zooming out, looking for any detail, until I eventually saw the national border. Funny that surrounding countries have highways and cities marked, but Israel has absolutely nothing.

21st Century Misfit | Google Maps doesn't know Israel?

Here's the link to google maps showing Israel:

google maps | Israel

I stumbled upon the blank-ish Israeli map a few weeks back and did a little research to find out why.

I had the intention of starting a thread about it but other things came up.

Thanks for giving me a opportunity to present my research, die_another_day.

With some of the places that the terrorists would like to hit, they wouldn't necessarily have to get inside, although that would help them out tremendously. Photographs and video's taken in conjunction with Google Earth would be a bigger help. From the pictures and video's, you'd be able to scan them and even enlarge them to look for the outside security devices. And the security devices on the inside could be ascertained if the place allows tours. Sure, I know civilians wouldn't have access to the whole building. Still, there is a lot to be learned by having people take tours of these facilities. Taken as a whole with the other information gleaned from Google Earth, pictures and video taken from the outside and you can get a fairly accurate picture of the security of a particular building that could wind up being a target for even home-grown terrorists, much less Middle Eastern terrorists. Google Earth would be good also for showing possible approaching and escape routes from the targeted building.

On one side, google earth wouldn't help anyone plant a bomb more than the man who will have to get there and plant it.
After all, GE (google earth) it's just a map, and anyone could draw a map.

Also i wanted to point out that GE is not precise in many places of the world.
For example, if you look, there is no ice in the north pole. Not a single shard.
Even with climate change and all, there is suposed to be ice there, right?
Also, the other pole, Atartica, its a blur white mass... which is inacurate.
I have seen photographies of antartica taken by my grandfather when he traveled as a photographer for a navy (Argentina' navy ) expedition and it's not a big white mass... actually it has hard rock beaches. Black rock.
What i saw in pictures was only the coast, but still, it doesn't mach GE maps.
Also, much of lating america has been blurred. For example to mask masive Canabis and Coca crops.

Google Earth edits a lot. And mean A LOT.
I wouldn't expect them to be showing critical locations of countries like china or others.
They tend to stay "politicaly correct" with everyone. Though i may be wrong in this last statement.




[edit on 1-4-2008 by Bluesession]

reply to post by goosdawg


No thank you ,
That is more evidence to show the dangers involved with things such as Google Earth and many other online maps.

How is Google Earth different from spy satellites other than some censoring and lower resolution? The truth is that there is little difference when it is used by people such as the CIA and terrorists.

If someone gets a missile or a plane, he/she can easily target a location where you really don't need too much precision. Google Earth in my oppinion gives enough information for missile targets and plots such as 9/11.