Google update renews fears

New Google Earth images are sharper, Israel is quick to react, India is yet to respond

MUMBAI: You can log in and count how many fighter aircraft are parked on IAF’s airstrip in Pune, or check out the rocket-launching site at Sriharikota, or see detailed pictures of India’s nuclear installations — earlier this month Google

Earth updated its imagery, making India and Israel among the countries on the website which now have higher resolution satellite and aerial pictures.

Israeli military experts have voiced concerns since Google Earth shows the headquarters of the Israeli secret service Mossad, the classified nuclear research station in Dimona, and the location of the Arrow missile defence system. The Indian establishment, on the other hand, is yet to react, which worries defence experts.

In fact an IAF officer dealing with the issue dismissed the fears: “We are not per se concerned about the images that are there on Google Earth right now. These are images that are dated and our adversaries have them anyway from other sources.”

Google maintains that the images in Google Earth are updated periodically, and they could be anywhere from a few months to three years old.

“We are constantly working with our third party data providers to integrate more recent, higher resolution imagery. We pushed a significant volume of new imagery on October 2,” Megan Quinn, a Google spokesperson said in an email reply to DNA.  

Defence experts feel the images increase the risk of low intensity attack, and higher the resolution of images, more the risk.

Colonel (retd) MP Chaudhary, who is an expert on terrorism and air photography, feels that terrorists can pinpoint the location of their targets using this tool. 

“With such crystal clear images, they don’t have to make any effort to find out about the entry and exit points as well,” he said.

Ajay Lele, a research fellow at the Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, feels “the government should ask Google to either blur or lower the resolution of such sensitive images”.

Apart from defence bases, nuclear installations at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Kalpakkam too are now visible in greater detail.

“It is a matter of concern for us and we are looking into it,” a BARC official said.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) too is worried about the images of the rocket-launching site at Sriharikota.

“We have communicated our reservations to the Government of India. We feel that domestic laws should be taken into account in this regard,” an ISRO official said.

Colonel Chaudhary feels India should find common cause with other countries who are also trying to deal with this problem. “There should be an international law regulating these images.”

The Google spokesperson said Google Earth would continue to add more high resolution coverage as and when the images become available. After the latest update this month,

“Google Earth has sub-metre high resolution imagery for 30% of the world’s land mass and 50% of the world’s population.”

Google says it is discussing security concerns with the Indian government.

“The discussions have been substantive and constructive, but no agreements have been made,” Quinn said, while maintaining that the fears are misplaced.

“Google Earth is built from information that is already available from a wide range of commercial and public sources. Anyone who flies above or drives by a piece of property can obtain the same information. As such, Google Earth presents no appreciable threat to security.”