British Forces See Google Earth as Terrorist Tool

This morning an MSNBC video reported accusations by British forces in Basra, Iraq that Google Earth, a free-to-join composite archive of satellite imagery, is to blame for increased accuracy of insurgent rocket attacks in the area. Google has evidently been put on the defensive because of this announcement and its position is that the features it provides can be used either for good or bad. Whether the eventual outcome of this announcement is the possible modification or even removal of some or all of the Google Earth features remains to be seen.

Personal experience leads this reporter to empathize with Google. Obviously, terrorist elements, while possibly fanatical, are not, by definition, stupid. They will, whenever possible, make use of whatever technology is accessible.

In Google's defense, it should be noted that certain features are in place which help minimize its use as a tool for crime or other sinister activities. When calling up an address in, for example, the United States, the notation provided by Google Earth does not exactly match the physical location of that address. More of a factor is that the archive of Google Earth imagery is not all of the same time period, nor is it particularly current. A safe estimate would be that many images are at least two years behind what a classified government intelligence satellite image would show for the same location, in near real time.

Of course, the potential for misuse varies a great deal from place to place and user to user. An eight-year-old somewhere in Indiana might be confused because Google Earth shows only an open field where his brand new house is supposed to be, while an insurgent in Iraq can more accurately target a contingent of enemy forces behind a mud wall that has been standing for two hundred years.

While many users of Google Earth may not be aware of it, Google Earth also tracks and keeps a record of each and every search by any of its subscribers. This factor alone should allow police or military forces to determine what a given user has been looking for when they come across a stray laptop at a crime scene or on the battlefield.