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Sneaky Satellite Photos Available Online

Posted by emmett on from the spy-on-the-neighbors dept.

Delboy writes "Here's an article from BBC News about a company called Space Imaging which will point their satellite at an area of the planet that you request, take a 1 metre resolution picture and then e-mail it to you the next day, check out this link to read more."

1 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Uses & implications (personal and geopolitical) by Dr.+Zowie · · Score: 5

    The sample images are very impressive. It's terrific to see that yet another space age technology is available for everyone.

    The commercial availability of these kinds of imaging changes so many things. A few off the top of my head:

    • Friends disappeared on a camping trip in the Grand Tetons? Ask Ikonos to photograph the area and find them -- provided they're smart enough to make "obvious" signs in the snow.
    • Environmental groups have a chance to spot illegal construction in places to which they have no legal access.
    • Virtual tourism -- the images are still a bit expensive for random snapshots(!), but what if (for example) space images of Tiannanmen Square had been available on the internet? Talk about a slashdotted site...
    • Virtually everybody can spy on world events. Ever wonder what's really going on in Afghanistan?

    This last aspect will give world governments more accountability about geopolitical "hot spots". When Joe Sixpack (or, at least, Joe Wealthy Sixpack or Earth First! or Greenpeace or International Amnesty) can produce images better than the ones that caused the Cuban Missile Crisis, it will become very hard for dishonest governments (such as our own!) to get away with certain kinds of lies. Of course, the illuminati aren't particularly stupid and will undoubtedly try to regulate or outlaw this stuff.

    In that light, the ``snapper'' of the BBC article is intriguing -- apparently the U.S. government has already outlawed certain kinds of spaceborne photography of Israel? Sheesh, you'd think people would eventually figure out that you can't put the genie back in the bottle. (You turn your back on congress for one session...)