Google Earth - Controversy and Criticism

Controversy and Criticism

The software has been criticized by a number of special interest groups, including national officials, as being an invasion of privacy and even posing a threat to national security. The typical argument is that the software provides information about military or other critical installations that could be used by terrorists.

• Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam expressed concern over the availability of high-resolution pictures of sensitive locations in India. Google subsequently agreed to censor such sites.
• The Indian Space Research Organisation said Google Earth poses a security threat to India, and seeks dialogue with Google officials.
• The South Korean government expressed concern that the software offers images of the presidential palace and various military installations that could possibly be used by hostile neighbor North Korea.
• In 2006, one user spotted a large topographical replica in a remote region of China. The model is a small-scale (1/500) version of the Karakoram Mountain Range, currently under the control of China but claimed by India. When later confirmed as a replica of this region, spectators began entertaining military implications.
• In 2006, Google Earth began offering detailed images of classified areas in Israel. The images showed Israel Defense Forces bases, including secret Israeli Air Force facilities, Israel's Arrow missile defense system, military headquarters and Defense Ministry compound in Tel Aviv, a top-secret power station near Ashkelon, and the Negev Nuclear Research Center. Also shown was the alleged headquarters of the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, whose location is highly classified.
• Operators of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia asked Google to censor high resolution pictures of the facility. However, they later withdrew the request.
• In July 2007, it was reported that a new Chinese Navy Jin-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine was photographed at the Xiaopingdao Submarine Base south of Dalian.
• Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades have reportedly used Google Earth to plan Qassam rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza (See: List of Qassam rocket attacks.)
• The lone surviving gunman involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks admitted to using Google Earth to familiarise himself with the locations of buildings used in the attacks.
• Michael Finton, aka Talib Islam, used Google Earth in planning his attempted September 24, 2009, bombing of the Paul Findley Federal Building and the adjacent offices of Congressman Aaron Schock in Springfield, Illinois.
• In 2009, Google superimposed old woodblock prints of maps from 18th and 19th century Japan over Japan today. These maps marked areas inhabited by the burakumin caste, who were considered "non-humans" for their "dirty" occupations, including leather tanning and butchery. Descendants of members of the burakumin caste still face discrimination today and many Japanese people feared that some would use these areas, labeled etamura (穢多村, translation: "village of an abundance of defilement""), to target current inhabitants of them. These maps are still visible on Google Earth, but with the label removed where necessary.
• Thieves in the United Kingdom allegedly use Google Earth to find Church of England churches with lead roofs in order to steal the lead and sell it as scrap (at $2,400 per metric tonne) on the metals market.

Google Earth has been blocked by Google in Iran and Sudan since 2007 due to US government export restrictions. The program has also been blocked in Morocco since 2006 by Maroc Telecom, a major service provider in the country.

Some citizens may express concerns over aerial information depicting their properties and residences being disseminated freely. As relatively few jurisdictions actually guarantee the individual's right to privacy, as opposed to the state's right to secrecy, this is an evolving point. Perhaps aware of these critiques, for a time, Google had Area 51 (which is highly visible and easy to find) in Nevada as a default placemark when Google Earth is first installed.

As a result of pressure from the United States government, the residence of the Vice President at Number One Observatory Circle was obscured through pixelization in Google Earth and Google Maps in 2006, but has since been lifted. The usefulness of this downgrade is questionable, as high-resolution photos and aerial surveys of the property are readily available on the Internet elsewhere. Capitol Hill used to also be pixelized in this way, but this was lifted. The Royal Stables in The Hague, Netherlands used to be pixelized as well, but was partially lifted. If one zooms in too close to the Stables, it is still pixelized.

Critics have expressed concern over the willingness of Google to cripple their dataset to cater to special interests, believing that intentionally obscuring any land goes against its stated goal of letting the user "point and zoom to any place on the planet that you want to explore".

In the United Kingdom, critics have also argued that Google Earth has led to the vandalism of private property, highlighting the graffiti of a penis being drawn on the roof of a house near Hungerford, on the roof of Yarm School at Stockton on Tees and on the playing fields of a school in Southampton as examples of this.

In Hazleton, Pennsylvania, media attention and critics focused on Google Earth once more because of the defacing of the Hazleton Area Highschool Football field. Grass was removed to create the image of a penis approximately 35 yards long and 20 yards wide.

Recent versions of Google Earth require a software component running in the background that will automatically download and install updates. Several users expressed concerns that there is not an easy way to disable this updater, as it currently runs without the permission of the user.

In June 2012, Google announced to the geo-modeler community that user-made 3D buildings will be replaced by Google auto-generated mesh. This has led to some disappointment among geo-modelers worldwide, who have submitted thousands of models, and some have businesses that rely on user submitted 3D buildings.