ISRAEL: Is Google Earth a threat to security?

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Israel’s Yediot Aharonot thinks so. Under the front-page headline “Transparent Country,” the newspaper reported Friday that updates in Google Earth’s online satellite imagery service make it possible for Israel’s enemies to see clearer, sharper pictures of the Jewish state’s air force bases, missile lauch sites and the top-secret nuclear reactor in the Negev Desert.

Google Earth, launched in 2005, initially featured low-resolution photos of Israel. Now, the newspaper says, the company has improved the resolution of those images, matching that of all other Google Earth photos — two meters per pixel, sharp enough for a detailed view of the ground.

A Google spokesman told the newspaper that the company’s pictures conform to American legal restrictions requiring U.S. companies providing overhead imagery of Israel to limit the detail of certain areas. A spokesman for the Israeli defense establishment says it is aware of Google’s capabilities and “acts in various ways to prevent sensitive information from reaching maps and satellite images.”

Even so, Israel’s biggest-selling newspaper is alarmed. “If Google Earth is an asset for enemy countries, then for terrorists it is pure gold,” Alex Fishman wrote in his commentary.

What to do about it? “Nothing,” he concluded, “but to internalize the fact that we have become transparent. . . . We have to get used to the idea that the most secret installations are no longer so secret, and to act accordingly.”

— Richard Boudreaux in Jerusalem