

Should Satellite Map data be Uncensored for all to enjoy? - ChuckMcM
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-10/who-if-anyone-should-oversee-use-satellite-map-data

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ChuckMcM
(that was the headline in the article so I left it unchanged)

This article is one of many that raises (re-raises) the very interesting
question about what is the morally correct thing to do with high resolution
aerial imagery. Clearly its an intelligence asset in times of war, there was a
big dust up that insurgents were getting imagery of American bases in Saudia
Arabia from Google Earth, that seems pretty straight forward. But what about
Area 51? What about Taiwan's radar site that monitors the space between the
island and the mainland for supersonic cruise missiles that China is alleged
to possess? All sorts of interesting questions.

The economics in this case work against privacy, in so much that many people
are willing to pay to see something that one person doesn't want seen. Imagine
that Google had a system where they could charge for viewing satellite tiles
at the 1M resolution. And user's could 'bid' for access like advertisers bid
for space on the search results. Now the people who are in the tile can bid
for 'non access.' If 1000 people bid $1 to see Area 51 in the Nevada desert
the Air Force has to bid $1001 to not show it? That wouldn't work (although it
would make Google a ton of money :-)

I'm not sure what the answer is, although I know that it only gets worse with
UAV's carrying 16MP digital cameras on them.

------
lutusp
Another tempest in a teacup. Taiwan and Turkey have, for different reasons,
asked Apple to blur its map images of sensitive facilities. But Apple isn't
revealing confidential or secret satellite data -- the database Apple uses is
by definition publicly accessible.

Anyone who wanted to get a clear picture of Taiwan's radar facility, or
Turkey's prison, could go to other sources to get the same, or better,
imagery. It's a little disingenuous to imagine that Chinese authorities need
to consult with Apple's iOS 6 map app to discover where Taiwan's radar
facility is located.

These international powers need to accept what private citizens have already
reluctantly accepted: privacy is dead.

