U.S. general laments Google Earth capability

Easy Internet access to satellite imagery poses security concerns, but measures can be taken to address the problem, he says.

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[jhawk95]

Credi Card?????

"He said it had provided anyone with a credit card the ability to get a picture of any place on earth."

Is this guy smoking crack or just as out of touch with technology and society as King George himslef?

Why would anyone need a credit card to use Google Earth. It is FREE and can be used by anyone at any point of access to the internet, including a FREE public library.

[weegg]

Think he's talking about the higher resolution stuff

Free Google earth only goes to a limited resolution (1000 ft. or
more altitude distance as viewed from our normal eye view). Paided
access with Google, gets you higher resolution stuff for more
details. There are several comercial ventures that allow you to even
request an image from their satellite (at much better resolution)
than google earth.

[paulsecic]

Credit

He must be smoking some Crawford weed.

[shadowself]

He's lying or a fool...

"Asked if the U.S. military might try to implement restrictions or blackouts on imagery of some areas, Deptula said he was not aware of such an attempt.

"'I don't want to speak to specifics, but not that I'm aware of,'" he said."

The laws (and regulations through the Department of Commerce) already on the books allow restrictions a blackouts. "Checkbook" blackouts have already happened (i.e., the U.S. government bought all rights to certain imagery for a certain period of time).

Imagery at a better resolution than a certain value must be delayed by at least 24 hours before it can be made publicly available.

The list goes on and on.

--- But then he might be hiding behind a the exact, technical wording of the question. The U.S. military is behind many of these restrictions, but they don't enforce them. Congress, the Department of Commerce, the Department of State, the FCC and various other *civil* organizations put these restrictions into place and enforce them.

And... lest anyone thing the U.S. government is overly hard on U.S. satellite imagery providers. Every other country with commercial satellite imagery providers has similar restrictions (and some are *way* more restrictive than the U.S.

[ddesy]

Oh please!

Letting people have a better view of the world using often outdated photos is not much of a security risk! If the military has something it needs to hide so badly, they can hide it inside a building.

Of course the current administration fears anything that might let reality leak into the general populace.

[TV James]

Finally, a reasonable response.

Sure, he's not telling us the whole story. One would assume he can't. (Look at Bremerton, Washington and notice how there's an obvious line extending through the town. One side, very clear. The other side, where the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is, much less clear.)

But on the other hand, these countries mad at Google for showing their country in detail is silly. If you could convince one company (or one country) to limit the resolution of their images, there'll always be someone else who doesn't want to play.

Best to recognize that progress moves on and you need to adapt.

[SandFarmer]

Google Earth is not the threat . . .

Again I have looked at my house and see cars parked in the driveway that I haven't had in years. So as far as up to date images, they're not to be had from Google Earth. Granted that this may be a stepping stone to get the info needed to order images from other providers, but as a stand alone image resource, regular Google Earth is not one. UNLESS, he is talking about the subscription versions of GE and that is where the credit card comes into play and the images might be up to date and higher res.

And my version shows that the images are provided by NASA, although copywritten by Europa Technologies along with others, in 2007. So I would imagine that if any restrictions were in place, they would be administered long before they ever hit GE. So other than a primary logistical resource, GE is not anymore of a threat than private enterprise.