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Thread: Indian president warns against Google Earth

  1. #1
    In And Above Man Black Cluster's Avatar
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    Indian president warns against Google Earth

    Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has joined the list of government officials charging that the geographic details provided by Google Earth's satellite imaging program pose a security risk.

    "Developing countries, which are already in danger of terrorist attacks, have been singularly chosen," Kalam said.

    Kalam, who is also the supreme commander of India's armed forces, made the comment over the weekend while addressing the nation's top police officers at the Vallabhabhai Patel National Police Academy at Hyderabad. Google has an engineering center in Hyderabad and another in Bangalore.

    Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Government officials in other countries, including South Korea and the Netherlands, have made similar complaints about the Google Earth application.

    High-resolution pictures are freely available on the Internet and are provided by many sites in addition to Google Earth, Kalam said. He cautioned officers during his speech to be aware of emerging "open-source intelligence." He also showed the audience aerial pictures of some of the sensitive locations in India.

    "When you look deeper into it, you would realize that the specific laws in some countries, regarding spatial observations over their territory and UN recommendations about the display of spatial observations, are inadequate," he noted.

    An intelligent mining of the data available on the Internet, according to Kalam, could give "indicators of preformation activities of terrorists groups and their origins and their supporters."

    Kalam has been a vocal supporter of open-source software and has not refrained from criticizing Microsoft.

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  2. #2
    AO's Resident Redneck The Texan's Avatar
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    You cant zoom in far enough to get enough detail to REALLY see anything can you? I really cant when I try to zoom in on my apartment.
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  3. #3
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    I was able to zoom in close enough to get enough detail to map a nuclear power plant here, well enough to plan entry and egress from the site, should I want to terrorize it. You can't quite make out guard posts if you don't know what to look for, but I imagine an educated individual would be able to.

    Doesn't really matter anyway though, since this was all available before, just not as readily. Any sufficiently determined individual could obtain far more detailed arial photographs of the same plant. Satellite pictures have already been available for some time for locations such as Area 51.

    It's not that suddenly satellite pictures are available... just that suddenly everybody knows about it.
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  4. #4
    AO übergeek phishphreek's Avatar
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    Its good enough to spot "steath bombers"... how stealthy is it really?

    http://www.siliconbeat.com/entries/2...th_bomber.html

    But then again... those maps are old. Too bad they don't give a date as to when the image was taken. They it'd really pose some danger?

    Here are some interesting ones...
    http://cryptome.org/sat-addict.htm

    There are tons of links out there that have links like this. These are just a few I found in 30 seconds searching google for "google earth military bases".
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  5. #5
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    Ive tryd to spy on enough girls with it to no avail. juuuust kidding...sort off. haha. Anyways I can see from there standpoint that the worlds public eye can pose a threat to those who want to mask what they have to hide. On the other side, its google. Its cool and not ment for some neato CIA vrs jehad war. Its google, sure people will try an exploit anything they can. But calm down already
    meh. -ech0.

  6. #6
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    OK let's turn the logic on its head a bit?

    1. If you are weak and people know it, you are vulnerable to attack.
    2. If people think that you are weak, you are likely to be attacked.
    3. If people know that you are strong, they leave you alone.

    Sometimes "showing your stuff" is the best approach

    Also, I am not aware of Google having cut a deal with NASA or the CIA, so that information must be rather dated and already in the public domain?

    P.S. Everyone knows that that B-2 is an inflatable dummy

  7. #7
    Senior Member t34b4g5's Avatar
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    has anyone tried using the full version?
    Because i have fiddled with the free version, and was just wondering what the differences were between the two programs. And weather or not it's worth spending the dollars on it.

    many thanks
    t34b4g5

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