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Google Blurring Sensitive Map Information

Posted by kdawson on from the blurring-the-nukes dept.

Cyphoid writes "While viewing my school (the University of Massachusetts Lowell) with Google Maps, I noticed that a select portion of the campus was pixelated: the operational nuclear research facility on campus. Curious, I attempted to view the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It too was pixelated. What or who is compelling Google to smudge out these images selectively? Will all satellite images of facilities that the government deems 'sensitive' soon be subject to censoring?" Not surprisingly, the same areas are blurred in Google Earth. But how about images from satellites operated by other nations, such as SPOT or Sovinformsputnik?

4 of 411 comments (clear)

  1. MassGIS by pHZero · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google Maps gets the Massachusetts aerial photos from MassGIS http://www.mass.gov/mgis

    I believe you will find they are the blurring culprits if you download the latest aerial photos done by a 2005 fly by.

    1. Re:MassGIS by markb · · Score: 5, Informative

      You're right. I don't think Google is the one censoring the photos. For a counter example, check out the photos of the White House on Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth (http://local.live.com). Google's images (from a private source) do not appear to be censored, but Microsoft's (from the USGS, I believe) are heavily edited.

    2. Re:MassGIS by rizzo420 · · Score: 5, Informative

      nope, it's not google... the millstone nuclear power plant in CT is not pixelated.

      --
      please me, have no regrets.
  2. details for you by r00t · · Score: 5, Informative

    This thing probably got caught up in a general order to obscure ALL nuclear plants.

    It's a really lame little plant, with barely any fuel. The white thing is a metal containment dome, attached to a 3-story or 4-story research building. It's about 4 stories tall. They give tours; you can look down into a pool of water to see the glowing blue core. It's called the Pinanski Energy Center.

    Attacking this plant would do nothing of any real interest, though some idiots would surely freak out. The radiation source is deep below ground and really weak.

    Most of the obscured area is just a parking lot. The research building extends to the northwest of the white reactor; they are attached. The area to the southwest is a parking lot for that building and the adjacent ones. The area to the northeast is a parking lot for the gym, which you can see with the white rectangle on the roof. The farthest west obscured area is a pedestrian overpass at the 3rd-floor level that runs between two unrelated buildings, the physics building (north) and engineering building (south). Most everything in the area is 4-story.

    There are far more interesting things on campus that a person could attack, starting with the dorms!

    You can find pictures on the web, including a lame attack by ABC news.

    http://www.uml.edu/maps/pinanski.htm
    http://www.uml.edu/student-services/disability/ada services/north_campus/pinanski_hall.html
    http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/LooseNukes/story?i d=988778