Dozens of satellite images of sites featured on Google Earth are intentionally blurred out because they are considered sensitive for security or privacy concerns. The satellite mapping service, launched by Google in 2005, features high-resolution images of thousands of cities around the world, including aerial imagess taken about 800 to 1,500 feet off the ground. Among the sites that are blurred out are key government sites, such as the White House; and U.S. military installations, such as Air Force bases.
According to Focus.com, a technology expert website, the Google Earth images of the White House roof have been modified so as not to display the air defense or security features in place. In addition, the residence of the Vice President of the United States at Number One Observatory Circle has been obscured. Ramstein Air Base, which is located in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, and the headquarters to the U.S. Air Force in Europe, is blurred out on Google Earth. Multiple sites belonging to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including the NATO C3 Agency in Brussels, Belgium and the NATO Air Base in Geilenkirchen, Germany are also obscured.
In February 2007, after discussions with the government of India over security issues, Google agreed to show blurry, low-resolution images of certain military bases and government buildings in India. In December 2008, investigations by police in Mumbai, India found that the terrorists who launched attacks against sites in southern Mumbai had used maps from Google Earth to help plan their attacks. However, Computerworld reported that many printed tourist maps had information about the locations — including hotels, a restaurant, a residential complex and a railroad station — that the terrorists attacked.
In March 2009, The New York Times reported that California Assemblyman Joel Anderson of San Diego had filed legislation that would force Google and other providers of online satellite mapping services to blur images of “soft targets,” such as schools, hospitals and churches. However, the legislation had not been approved by the California Assembly as of 2011.
According to a February 2007 TechNewsWorld article, Google has generally complied with requests from governments to blur images. However, Dorota Huizinga, an associate dean at California State University at Fullerton, was quoted in the article saying that if Google Earth has images of certain sites, then it’s likely that many intelligence services around the world have the same or better images, and blurring them will do little good.
Some images featured on Google Earth are unintentionally blurry or unclear. According to Google Earth’s Help section, Google Earth sometimes shows images of areas that have clouds or discoloration, which may cause the images to appear blurry. In other cases, Google was not able to obtain a high resolution image of a particular area.
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