Neowin.net - Google Maps Is Terror Tool Says Indian President

Google Maps Is Terror Tool Says Indian President

Posted by Mr magoo on 17 October 2005 - 17:50 · 73 comments & 19076 views

India's President, Abdul Kalam, has voiced public concern over Google Maps, an online mapping tool that mixes traditional maps with satellite photographs, via an online interface.

Kalam, talking after a meeting with security officials, said that "developing countries, which are already in danger of terrorist attacks, have been singularly chosen". Kalam went on to talk about setting up new laws to control data dissemination at a national level, and described UN recommendations on the topic 'inadequate'.

A Google spokeswoman said that "Google takes governmental concerns about Google Earth and Google Maps very seriously. Google welcomes dialogue with governments, and we will be happy to talk to Indian authorities about any concerns they may have." The company also added that the images were not live and were often two years or more older.

India is not the only country that has voiced concerns over Google Maps. South Korea, The Netherlands and the United States government have all raised concern publicly about the potential for abuse. So far, it would appear that only the US government has been successful in forcing the company to edit map images.

Is Google Maps really open to abuse? Perhaps. It is easy, however, to forget that most of the content is already available in one form or another. Google's aim, as stated, is to "build products that organize the world's information"; the company has simply pulled the information together via a very simple tool. One can hardly moan at them for trying.

News source: Hindustan Times | Google Maps

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(2 replies) #1 Posted by fubarshibby on 17 Oct 2005 - 17:50: First word of article should be India's

Anyway, I really don't see how this is such a big deal. If they don't get it from Google Maps they're going to be able to get it from somewhere else anyway. Google's only being singled out because of the fact that they're such a large entity on the web. I mean, honestly, how have terrorist groups been operating before Google Maps? Telepathy?

#2 Posted by CDog on 17 Oct 2005 - 17:51: Pffff... I thought we got past this when the issue first arrose when Columbus started drawing maps of the world It's a fair point they make but it does seem a little over the top.

#3 Posted by Trix on 17 Oct 2005 - 17:55: um who cares? no ones complaining about the other mapping services that have been around for years.. or even nasa's one.

(5 replies) #4 Posted by Haval_Kocher on 17 Oct 2005 - 17:57: They are always trying to find a way to put a company down or fine them, I mean look what happened to Microsoft Windows XP with the Media Player.

I say its all none sense and waste of time trying to put the product down.

Anyone that disagrees with me please speak

#5 Posted by y0sh on 17 Oct 2005 - 17:59: Google's not the first to offer this.
I remember years ago upmystreet.co.uk provided satellite images.

& what about Google Earth & Nasa Worldwind?

(Oh and the first word of the article is wrong. Correct it to "India's" or remove the "'s" to make it 'indian president..' )

Last edited by 77932 on 17 Oct 2005 - 19:48

#6 Posted by fergiej on 17 Oct 2005 - 18:02: And the images of Washington on Google Maps is WAAAY out of date. In the past couple of versions of Google Earth, the Pentagon and Capitol building are NOT pixelated anymore. The White House never was or is. It just looks funny because you are looking straight down on it, not at an oblique angle. Don't they realize that all they need is a map? Just having the images in addition to the maps doesn't make the target any more appealing.

Article is just FUD plain and simple.

(9 replies) #7 Posted by johanc on 17 Oct 2005 - 18:09: I guess India just like others who complain never heard of FReedom and prefer to keep opressing people.Country where the state wants absolute control over everything. Its just to bother and annoy the common people. Terrorist for sure dont need google maps.
Sad that freedom is so rare.

(2 replies) #8 Posted by Game on 17 Oct 2005 - 18:26: India doesn't have a president...President APJ Abdul Kalam is someone else, they have a prime minister though... might want to fix that.

(4 replies) #9 Posted by mohan_168 on 17 Oct 2005 - 18:45: India does have a President. Its President Abdul Kalam. He is no such ordinary politician. He is called " The Father Of Nuclear India ". One of the few top brass people who helped India become a Nuclear Power.

Our concerns are threat related. India's most talked about reactor can be clearly seen by Google Earth. Even Parliament House, the Rashtrapati Bhawan and surrounding government offices in New Delhi. There are also some clear shots of defence establishments in India.

These are all vital places with political and defence importance.

(4 replies) #10 Posted by Airlink on 17 Oct 2005 - 18:57: In related news, Google Maps users now say that Indian President Abdul Kalam is a total moron and should shut his pie hole. In response, Abdul Kalam handed out maps to his next press conference so that terrorist bombers could easily find the press conference without having to resort to "terrorist tools" like Google Maps. More explosions are expected.

#11 Posted by l2aine on 17 Oct 2005 - 19:27: I wonder if anyone at Dell's tech support use Google Maps... then would that mean they were going against their own president / prime minister ?

(2 replies) #12 Posted by Pliskin on 17 Oct 2005 - 19:34: Just bomb India, problem solved.

#13 Posted by dhan on 17 Oct 2005 - 19:40

Just to counter some of the ignorance in comments, I am quoting from his profile.

QUOTE

Born on 15th October 1931 at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, specialized in Aeronautical Engineering from Madras Institute of Technology. Dr. Kalam made significant contribution as Project Director to develop India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) which successfully injected the Rohini satellite in the near earth orbit in July 1980 and made India an exclusive member of Space Club. He was responsible for the evolution of ISRO's launch vehicle programme, particularly the PSLV configuration. After working for two decades in ISRO and mastering launch vehicle technologies, Dr. Kalam took up the responsibility of developing Indigenous Guided Missiles at Defence Research and Development Organisation as the Chief Executive of Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP). He was responsible for the development and operationalisation of AGNI and PRITHVI Missiles and for building indigenous capability in critical technologies through networking of multiple institutions. He was the Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister and Secretary, Department of Defence Research & Development from July 1992 to December 1999. During this period he led to the weaponisation of strategic missile systems and the Pokhran-II nuclear tests in collaboration with Department of Atomic Energy, which made India a nuclear weapon State. He also gave thrust to self-reliance in defence systems by progressing multiple development tasks and mission projects such as Light Combat Aircraft.

Trolling kills.

#14 Posted by rbet on 17 Oct 2005 - 19:46

QUOTE

A Google spokeswoman said that "Google takes governmental concerns about Google Earth and Google Maps very seriously. Google welcomes dialogue with governments, and we will be happy to talk to Indian authorities about any concerns they may have." The company also added that the images were not live and were often two years or more older.

Wow, two years or more?? Considering my PhD in the field of Plate Tectonics, I conclude that the White House (or whatever Indian equivalent) must have moved around 157.87 miles NNW within the last two years, give or take a few feet.

(2 replies) #15 Posted by darthfader on 17 Oct 2005 - 19:54: google maps doesnt have sattellite images with map info about India anyway , what is he complaining?
Any map is a terror tool, fool.

#16 Posted by Sub on 17 Oct 2005 - 20:34: Screwdrivers are a terrorist tool, you dont see me complaining to Stanley.

#17 Posted by ren_2001 on 17 Oct 2005 - 20:38: I agree 100% - terror tool for sure. Not that it's a bad thing to have for us normal people. Maybe we all need to put microchips in our heads so the computer knows we're not terrorits LOL.

(2 replies) #18 Posted by ren_2001 on 17 Oct 2005 - 20:38: On top of that, some of the satellite images are 4 or so years old.

#19 Posted by ren_2001 on 17 Oct 2005 - 20:39: Maybe it should only let Mac users use it. PC is evil.

#20 Posted by Dwarden on 17 Oct 2005 - 20:42: well i think that what was pixelated on the sat photos of WH area are AA and anti missile defence systems ... that's all

in past there were some tries to made some sat and ortho photos in worse quality as there was fear it will be used by wrong hands for cruising missiles navigation ...

but as of today ... anyone who want cash will get this anway so it don't matter anymore ...

(2 replies) #21 Posted by tiwaris on 17 Oct 2005 - 22:25: First of all, to all those posters posting crap about India's president should google for his profile. He is not a typical politician who speeks off his ass. He is a renowned scientist and exceptionally intelligent and talented individual. He has been (and still is) a rocket scientist as well as a nuclear scientist (as some people perfer to call him). Read his biography and some of his writings before you judge him. He is a rare talent that India has and so stop bitching about him. Just to add, also google for the profile of India's PM and you will find that he is also a higly educated and learned man and a renowned economist. These two are perhaps (to the best of my knowledge) amongst the most educated heads of state that any country (on this planet) has. And yes none of them are elected by the people so none of them are typical politicians.

And by the way, if google blacks out parts of US, why the hell they show military and other establishements of any other country including India. Any sovereign nation has the full right to decide wheather they want their topology to be scanned by a satellite or not. I do not have any grudge against google. I love them as a company and respect them for their innovation and their commitment to high quality research. I also respect their business ethics.

I am still not sure whether google imagery poses a serious threat to a nation, but nevertheless his concerns are fully justified. Before posting stupid comments, just put yourself into his place and then put your perspective.

As per google spokesperson, the imagery may be a couple of years old, but that does not matter since the geography of a place does not change every two years.

#22 Posted by Garrett Socling on 17 Oct 2005 - 22:53: So.

How is Google Maps / Earth a problem? What is it providing that would be useful that (assuming you were a terrorist) it wouldn't be just as easy to get (like it was said) with a 35mm camera and a state atlas? I want to know too, how have terrorist groups operated in the past? How does a picture of a military installation provide anyone with useful data? What useful data? Useful to who? How are they going to use it?

**** that, **** the US, **** India, hell, **** the terrorists.

But **** knee-jerk reactions, most of all.

#23 Posted by xpgeek on 17 Oct 2005 - 23:20: Every time I see one of these stories I immediately think "stuuuupid". I really don't see the big deal. As everyone else has said, if they don't get the image from Google they'll get it someplace else, and, how useful is it anyway. Yea I'm sure that highly trained terrorist had no idea where that building he wanted to bomb was until he saw it on google maps.

#24 Posted by Phantom Puppet on 17 Oct 2005 - 23:27: People also complained when search engines indexed all of their websites. Hence, you have robots.txt. Now, that companies are organising photographs of the entire world, should countries email Google, and everyone else doing the same thing, with robots.txt files that say what to not show?

(1 reply) #25 Posted by j0j081 on 18 Oct 2005 - 00:28: I think I'll call up AOL or Dell support and ask what they think of this issue.

#26 Posted by TC17 on 18 Oct 2005 - 03:56: I guess we better ban television video of other countries also because they can use that as a terrorist tool.

This whole thing is just stupid.

#27 Posted by DJ Specs on 18 Oct 2005 - 04:03: Better ban all tourist maps and videos as well that show all the important buildings in every city and a map how to get to them, published by their own countries..

#28 Posted by Berserk on 18 Oct 2005 - 07:09: this is dumb google isnt the only thing that you can get maps/street pics from over the internet....

#29 Posted by Phantom Puppet on 18 Oct 2005 - 07:32: Even better, buy the President an AFDB.

(4 replies) #30 Posted by Mando on 18 Oct 2005 - 10:35: Err to all that say this is stupid

think about it for a minute. He has a valid point. Its ok to black out US sensitive areas but not others?

Thats a bit biased to say the least.

SO lets say India or Pakistan or any other country (China or N Korea) wanted to put sattelites over the US to take snapshots to make freely available in an Asian owned image service, you reckon bush and his morons (err i mean goons) would say yer sure snapshot away at Edwards Air Force Base and other sensitive areas, hell ill wave to you.

not on your life mate.
India have insurgents on their doorstep (including bordering with Pakistan).

If you actually stopped and thought outwith US thinking youd see he has a valid point. For one he isnt singling out google but the way google is in the mainstream and is freely available to anyone, anywhere. Before all of these mapping imagery was freely available it was restrictive and could be tracked & recorded who actually had these images.

Where exactly do all these amazing high res images come from?
oh an old US Military Spy sattelite theres a surprise.

The diff between this and previous methods of Reconaissance is that the sat imagery is EXACTLY accurate to a matter of a few inches, and if my memory serves me correctly you can also get GPS data with the Pro version.

This in itself is enough to guide a plane or two or a ICBM to its target (highly improbable but possible). Hell its with GPS autopilot functions in planes operate.

He is concerened that Indian military targets and Nuclear plants and freely visible to their neighbours and adversaries from the last couple of decades.

If its good enough for USA to dictate what is cencsored and what is not censored then every other world state should also have this privelige. Its only fair.

Yet another American company exploiting American spy data and satellite imagery of the whole world.
What gives Google or USA the right to release sensitive images of other countries? Despite what Bush thinks they are NOT the worlds police force. (no im not Anti-american or anti-Google, if anything all id be is Anti-bush)

Last edited by 11418 on 18 Oct 2005 - 11:00

#31 Posted by Wiggz on 18 Oct 2005 - 12:37: I agree that such sensitive areas should be 'blacked out' if the US ones are. However the idea that Google Maps or EARTH would become a threat to any nations security simply due to the fact it collates information that is easily obtained from most councils or governing bodies throughout the world is obsurd.

(2 replies) #32 Posted by Lexcyn on 18 Oct 2005 - 17:00: I don't get it ... the white house in google maps is just an outline, but it's STILL THERE.

Anyways, I think censorship of this type if thing is bogus. Countries shouldn't have things to hide, anyways.

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