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Google, Microsoft, DigitalGlobe, and the world's governments decide what does and doesn't belong on its surface. In early February, Wired published a satellite photo of a desert structure in southern Saudi Arabia. The image,...from Bing Maps, corresponded with a report that the CIA had built secret drone bases in the region. The site was available on any computer with a web browser, but appeared to be legit. Bing Maps, which is owned by Microsoft, had effectively outed a closely guarded...secret
Google, on the other hand, officially denies that it censors map data, telling BuzzFeed, "in occasional instances in which we receive government requests to blur portions of our imagery, we are always open to discussing those requests with public agencies and local officials. To date, none of these conversations has resulted in our blurring any imagery."
But there's a serious caveat: "Google Earth is built from a broad range of imagery providers, including public, government, commercial and private sector sources -- some of which may blur images before they supply it to us."
Originally posted by watchitburn
I thought their comment about receiving blurred images was humorous.
It's most probably, he says, that "they have different update schedules, and Microsoft got the data a little bit earlier."
Originally posted by Phage
Did you know that the DoD limits the resolution of satellite imagery released to the public?
www.spacecolorado.org...
Government would be allowed access to imagery at this highest resolution. All other customers would only receive imagery at the highest resolution allowed by U.S. regulations, currently 0.5-meter or 19.5 inch ground resolution.
The inference being that all remote imagery is downgraded in resolution (or definition, quality, detail) or otherwise censored, except for those in Government or agencies thereof
Originally posted by nomnom
reply to post by burntheships
What does it matter how they censor the maps?