Google Earth is a very interesting tool but I think they released it in a hurry. They are doing wrold wide terrioists a big favour. It's not legal even to fly an aircraft over high secuirty zone but you can see all the buildings and can easily make a map.
This site still has the images taken through google earth before they tried to hide white house.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/20/google_earth_democracy_two/
EDIT : GO TO THE LINK BELOW AND ZOOM IN (Click + Sign in left 3-4 times)
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=32.153852,-110.835743&spn=0.013064,0.020140&t=k&hl=en
But what about others? US is not the only country in this world which needs security. Google earth should be banned till they can hide all high security zone areas from all countries. (heck of a job)
Last edited by Sunny on Thu Sep 29, 2005 3:50 pm; edited 4 times in total That's a really good point...the question is will they actually take action and do something about it.
I guess I wouldn't make a very good terrorist, I didn't even think to use Google Earth for this purpose. 
| Dark_Jedi06 wrote: |
| I guess I wouldn't make a very good terrorist |
No such thing... | Dark_Jedi06 wrote: |
| I didn't even think to use Google Earth for this purpose. |
Neither did I... o_O I was just having fun trying to find my house and stuff like that but thats a really good point... The White House should not be the only place to be hidden... What about the recent bombs in London? Did they hide the Buckingham palace yet?If people begin to get scared of terrorist using things like Google Earth to make attacks, then they truly have won...
Yes.I think it's better that hidden White House.
If not, it may be used by terririst one day.
| Nameless wrote: |
| If people begin to get scared of terrorist using things like Google Earth to make attacks, then they truly have won... |
I'd imagine..any terrorist planning to intrude in to building will first want to have a map of the building..(gates..etc).
and not just terriorsts, I think you only saw the fst page of the page I posted. Its continued to upto 4th Page. It's a very serious threat for any country even from enemy countries and not just terrorists.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/20/google_earth_democracy_two/page3.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/20/google_earth_democracy_two/page2.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/20/google_earth_democracy_two/page4.htmlI'm not so sure that this is such a huge threat. First of all, to fly an airplane into the White House you need more than a picture of the building from above. You need to hijack the thing, which, what with bulletproof doors and the extra security, is not exactly easy. Second, you have to make it all the way into the no-fly zone, past all the good folks with anti-aircraft guns. Again, I doubt that google earth can help you too much with that.
Also, consider this: just as 100,000 terrorists can see the white house from above, 300 million americans can see the rest of the earth. Now, anyone who wants to can go take a look at how the North Koreans are doing. Anyone can pore over China's backyard, and there's not a damn thing that they can do about it. Finally, we all have heard the government bitch about how they lack analysts, and how they have a huge backlog of satellite photos that have yet to be analyzed. Well, now anyone with a modem can look for terrorist training camps in the mountains of Afghanistan.
First, there was SETI@home, that used the computing power of a million idling machines to look for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. Then, there was Wikipedia, that, instead of relying on committees and editors, allowed anyone to add to the pool of human knowledge, becoming one of the most complete sources of information the world has ever known. Then, there were watchdog bloggers who, by virtue of sheer numbers, could keep track of the lies and distortions of public figures that had slipped by the mainstream media.
Now, thanks to google earth, the whole world is our playground. Of course, we could allow governments all around the world hide what they want to hide, retouching Google's images to suit themselves. But why? I doubt that this information is going to greatly compromise America's security. However, it is an amazing tool, and the only limit to its uses is our imagination.
Update: After reading this thread, I went and installed Google Earth on my computer. The first thing I did was zoom all the way over Pyongyang. It was like having Kim Jong-Il in the palm of my hand, and I was itching to bring my palms together. 
| Quote: |
| I'm not so sure that this is such a huge threat. First of all, to fly an airplane into the White House you need more than a picture of the building from above. You need to hijack the thing, which, what with bulletproof doors and the extra security, is not exactly easy. Second, you have to make it all the way into the no-fly zone, past all the good folks with anti-aircraft guns. Again, I doubt that google earth can help you too much with that. |
Thats exactly my point..Its not just the white house that needs security.There are many countries apart from U.S. which are sufering from terrorism and terrorist activities are so often that now sometimes they don't even make it to the news headlines.Not long time ago there was an attack on the parliament of a country. They managed to get in the main building. I leave this for you to find out which country.
Reason why its tough to counter terrorism is they have the "surprise advantage"..in simpler words A govt. has to guard all important buildings, all major public places but they only have to choose 1 out of thousands. When its so tough to counter it why give them an extra tool?
Not sure about your country, It might be safe from terrorism. So you can easily rule out the possibility. But in few countries its not same. There are terrorist incidents almost every day.Scary stuff. I'm checking out pyonyang now. =)
while the competence of our government (never mind the current administration) leaves something to be desired, Google earth technology isn't significantly different from flight simulator software that anyone could buy from their local store. I doubt very much that this kind of software is enhancing terrorists' designs. besides... it's an online thing; could it be possible that the government is already tracking IP addresses that access particularly sensitive regions in google earth??? (I wouldn't put it past them, though in this case I wouldn't disagree with them)
Wow its that easy to see up close to something like that Is there a website that shows real time like viewing?
| xorcist wrote: |
| Wow its that easy to see up close to something like that Is there a website that shows real time like viewing? |
there is no such website that i know of due to it being nearly impossible (at the current time). Those images are gather over a long period of time, from aircraft and satelites. So its not feasable to give that kinda of coverage of the globe using current methods.Wow, that is scary. How did they forget about hiding it?
As u said... All the other countries with some private airspace is visible. eg India... Google is doing a great job but it must be careful before falling into lawsuits. esp International
Ciao
Lets exploite all the problems and high secrity places on google earth before they take it down and save it! Of course I don't know any........ But the military stuff is cool, I actually get so see some military base from the air. I think that just shows how much land we have if we can use that much on military.
Note: I did not read all the posts following the article of the orginal post.
Recently, google earth released the images of India. This created a contraversy as it included the images of air force bases etc. I dont know how big a threat this is, but I sure feel cautioned.
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Last edited by ldnet on Thu Oct 06, 2005 8:10 pm; edited 1 time in total
yo, can u tell me where those planes are lol, who the hell put out like 1000 airplanes like that?? is it area 51? cause looks crazy the whole field is full of plane lol.
Alot of the images are from commericial satellites and have been available through open source for quite a few years. The resolution of the images and date's are such no current military operations are available. All images also have to be approved for public release. So what your seeing is declassified images that governments have deemed as useless. Google has to purchase these images from the sponsor of the satellite company which just about anyone can do if they have some money. There are some companies that provide a little better resolution than google.
Its still cool to check map against google, especially since mapquest has some serious errors.
Peace,
Atomic
Not only the White House is hidden. There are more hidden objects. But Microsoft Earth is not better, Apple isn't visible on it.
Do you also know that the Twin Towers are still in the program. What I want to say is that it can also be, only a mistake of Google!!!
If I'm wrong, correct me!
Good info. There is also images in google earth showing army planes which has to be keep secret. And now that company will or will not sue google ppl. More votes will sue.
Good fun, good fun. 
Try Checking out your house or school/work....I know I found em 
As for this being a security issue...as others mentioned, there are other means of obtaining these kinds of images. The government would have to try and censor em all before a legitmized suit could be directed towards a single company.
