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Google Street View removes images of secret UK sites
It turns out that when Google recently deployed Street View all across the UK, they mistakenly ignored "do not photograph" signs around some key military installations, including bases of the Special Boat Service and Special Air Service (SAS) and the MI5 headquarters. This obviously raised some (real or imaginary) concerns that said images might be used by terrorists, and Google promptly removed them.
When I originally wrote about Street View going live across the UK, I voiced my privacy concerns. Commenters then shot me down as being a scaremonger. So I must ask, dear commenters: if there really is no problem with Street View showing images you can see just by walking down the street, is the UK government making a fuss over nothing here?
[Via: telegraph.co.uk]
Comments
12
Subscribe to commentsAnnoying PosterMar 22nd 2010 9:31AM
why do you care about what the UK thinks. put this article on engadget.co.uk
JackMar 22nd 2010 9:42AM
Because America is the only country in the entire planet... no wait America is an entire planet unto itself. How about you get out from under your rock redneck and go and see that there is far more to earth than one nation.
r3loadedMar 22nd 2010 9:45AM
I still don't see the problem - what's the harm of taking a photo of a place if it only shows what you can see if you walk down there?
The terrorist argument is pure BS too - any terrorist wanting to attack the SAS training centre will already know where it is, and would have just drove/walked past the area. In any case, is anyone stupid enough to dare to attack a base with a large concentration of the world's most elite soldiers? :P
Gardiner WestboundMar 22nd 2010 10:13AM
Too funny. Reminds me of the top secret North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) command center in North Bay, Ontario, the Canadian counterpart to the U.S.'s Cheyenne Mountain control center. The three story installation was buried underground topped by a four-story hill that wasn't there before. Guess they thought nobody would notice the new hill and vehicle entrance.
raccoMar 22nd 2010 11:05AM
yep, fuss over nothing.
year+ old photos of streets anyone in the present can walk down right now.
oh noooooo!!! the terrorist will get us if we show them what MI5's front door looked like last year.
This crap is getting real annoying
kevjohnMar 22nd 2010 10:51AM
Is that the UK Street View vehicle? Not exactly sneaking around trying to go unnoticed is it? If a terrorist/criminal/evildoer wanted whatever information that might have been provided by the Google S.V., they could go out and shoot it themselves much more discretely.
Prof. Michael StollMar 22nd 2010 1:19PM
there is a difference between walking around and taking photographs: convenience. its similar to securing a bike with a chain. of course one cannot secure a bike with a chain firmly, it's easy to open up a chain with a bolt-clipper, but its not as convenient.
Muffin_manMar 22nd 2010 3:27PM
Ren't these same sites visible in satelite view? (I don't know). Surely that's a bigger risk?
Even so, I don't see how a terrorist organisation could gain any more intel from this really.
If anything MI5 should work with Google. Let the terrorists look at their public buildings, then anyone who does, their IP can be handed over to MI5 and they can do a background check.
fiendsanMar 22nd 2010 3:51PM
yes still pretty lame scaremonger posts... and yes its silly the government asking google to take them off (any terrorist can go take pictures by themselves, hell i have some pictures of MI6 building as well as google images...), still its normal for the government to ask to take those pictures out just because they are more sensitive buildings (secret service and military), yet you don't see them asking to take off big ben, or the parliament, or the tower of london or the tower bridge or any other governmental building for that matter...
ProlornMar 22nd 2010 7:53PM
This latest incident does not raise any new concerns. Remember the concerns over satellite imagery? Remember any follow-up incidents? Yeah.
At least this time it was only images taken from public spaces. I remember one time that the Google Street View car was allowed into a military base to take pictures along the roads inside.
(Of course, the fault there lies with the guard who allowed a camera-toting Street View car in.)
WedgeTalonMar 22nd 2010 10:13PM
I for one am GLAD that they blocked Google street view from assisting terrorists with photos of places like MI5 HQ. It makes it so much safer from terrorists because now you can't find ANY photographs of these places anywhere, not even with a simple search like this: http://images.google.com/images?q=MI5+headquarters
....oh wait
dullthudMar 23rd 2010 12:58PM
I find it ironic that the British Government has no issues with placing surveillance cameras all over the place to watch their own people, yet won't allow Google to take pictures of publicly owned buildings. If I lived in the UK, I'd probably write my MP to complain. A government should not have more rights than one of it's citizens.