Data Problems > Censorship

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A recurring theme of BBS discussion is possible censorship by Google. It has been suggested that this is not Google's responsibility, because the data is provided by other sources, and that users should take it up with such sources. We look to Google for the quality of the output, no matter how or where they obtain the data. As noted elsewhere, one does not receive bad food from a restaurant, and then permit the owner to tell you to contact the farmer if you are dissatisfied.

This is a conservative listing, because censorship can be a serious assertion. The censorship must be clear and obvious when compared with adjacent imagery. Generally, they are in three categories: blurring, pixelization, and "whiteout."

Obvious blurring or smudging: Canada and USA


Pixelization: Netherlands, New York State, Washington DC



[LIST][*]Canada
---- Ontario Hydro substation, censored by NY State GIS. Noted by C. Hays
---- Wager Bay area censored by blurring; NOT censored in Microsoft''s Virtual Earth, noted 28 July 2005, [color:"red"]Reasons unknown[/color]

[*]France
---- Dijon airfield, noted by "Jumble," 3 June 2007
---- Metz airfield, noted 3 June 2007
---- Reims airfield, noted by "sw," 22 March 2007
---- Toulouse munitions plant, La Soci�t� Nationale des Poudres et Explosifs, 4 June 2007
[*]Germany [color:"red"]Reasons unknown[/color]
---- Geilenkirken NATO HQ - the reason for this one is apparent. Caused by the new Netherlands imagery.
---- Heidelberg's "white-out" determined to be uncensored; Kleinglattbach, Monzelfeld and Oberthulba moved to "Missing Images."

[*]Israel
Jon Kyl (Republican of Arizona and co-chairman of the US-Israel Joint Parliamentary Committee on National Security) and Jeff Bingaman (Democrat of New Mexico) amended the 1996 Defense Appropriations Act:

In 1998, the US Commerce Department determined the routinely available resolution to be 2 meters. In June 2006, Google Earth improved most of Israel from the general 15 meter backgournd resolution.

[*]Netherlands (introduced with the new high-resolution images in March-April 2006 and greatly expanded in September).
---- Royal & official residences - we contrast 6 censored with 8 NOT censored
---- Military 2, NATO 11, Air Force 13, Army 25, Navy 8, Miscellaneous 4
---- Unknown 11 [color:"red"]Help is needed to identify these.[/color]

[*]Portugal: Lajes AFB, Azores

[*]Russia:
---- Chukotskiy censored by blurring, noted 23 July 2005 and 18 February 2006. Instead of blurring, Microsoft's Virtual Earth copied a nearby image and placed it on the area, which we show. [color:"red"]Reasons unknown[/color]

[*]Slovakia: Some military airports

[*]Spain: Several mainland coastal radar sites

[*]USA:
---- Washington, DC: The Naval Observatory and the US Vice President's house are uncensored since the January 2009 Inauguration. Microsoft's Virtual Earth has also removed their censorship from this location. However, Microsoft still blurs the 'Bird's eye" views of the Capitol buildings, the White House, and the Naval Observatory.
---- New York GIS censorship: Most of the high resolution imagery is supplied by the NY State GIS agency. The censorship appears to be selected by the counties, because they vary greatly in criteria. Westchester County continues to be the most highly censored, followed closely by Long Island. We have significantly expanded our analysis upstate and in Long Island after the September 2006 image upgrades. Many blurred Hudson Valley locations were noted 5 May 2006. Note the 7-by-7 mile size of the West Point Academy forest blurring in Orange County. Orange and Suffolk County have not blurred some locations - they simply "paint" them in white.