Some locations on free, publicly viewable satellite map services have missing, incomplete, or unclear map data. In some cases, these regions have been intentionally digitally obscured or blurred. Westchester County, New York, for example, has asked Google to blur potential terror targets (such as an amusement park, a beach, and parking lots) from its satellite imagery.
Contents
- Countries in official contact with Google Maps
- Antarctica
- South Korea
- Taiwan
- Turkmenistan
- Israel
- France
- Turkey
- North America
- References
In some cases, censorship of certain sites has been removed. When Google Maps was launched, images of the White House and United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. were blurred out; current versions of Google Maps and Google Earth show these sites uncensored, but with out-of-date imagery.
Countries in official contact with Google Maps
During talks with the Indian government, Google issued a statement saying "Google has been talking and will continue to talk to the Indian government about any security concerns it may have regarding Google Earth." Google agreed to blur images on request of the Indian government.
The Australian government has decided that images of sensitive areas are not a risk, due to poor level of detail. It was reported that in the lead-up to the APEC forum in Sydney held in September 2007 certain key locations in images of the city's central business district, where APEC leaders were meeting, might have been intentionally reduced in resolution; however, Google has indicated that the change was unrelated to APEC, while the NSW police said that they knew nothing about the change in Google's images. It is known that images of Her Majesty's Australian Prisons are intentionally blurred out. Images of the prime minister's official residence, The Lodge have not been blurred. However, images of its roof have been and the entrance to The Lodge is blurred in Google Street View.
The government of Malaysia has stated that it will not ask Google to censor sensitive areas because that would identify the locations it deemed to be sensitive.
Antarctica
Extremely low resolution area in Google Earth covers over 3 million square miles.
South Korea
South Korean online map services Daum Maps and Naver Maps, as well as Bing maps, censor a substantial part of their satellite/aerial imagery. Every military used land (US and ROK) is altered to show woodland or mountains. Also the nuclear reactor sites and many airports and possibly other civilian infrastructure. The national mint is pixellated. Google Maps does not have these omissions for South Korea.
Japan
Taiwan
Rounded irregular areas overlaid with older imagery, etc.
The above are but a few examples. Pixelization also occurs for bases like zh:成功嶺.
In addition, whole areas like downtown Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung have not been updated since 2006, due to restrictions posed by the Land Surveying and Mapping Act, etc.
Turkmenistan
Natural gas purification plants and gas complexes located in Yoloten region of South Turkmenistan are also replaced with desert images.
Israel
The entire country of Israel, as well as the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, is shown pixelated in all mapping services. This is a result of the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 1997. The amendment is titled "Prohibition on collection and release of detailed satellite imagery relating to Israel" and requires NOAA's Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs agency to regulate the distribution of zoomed images of Israel.
France
Ile du Ramier, Toulouse (Link), the location of the National Organization for Powder and Explosives (preparation of phosgene for the aerospace industry and other form of explosive gas including Sulfur Mustard). The AZF chemical factory is pixelated, but Google Maps feature links to a detailed photo of the factory. Reims – Champagne Air Base.
A number of French military installations are pixelated, including the naval bases at Toulon and Brest.Also parts of Istres-Le Tubé Air Base are pixelated.
Turkey
All satellite images of Turkey for certain zoom levels are either missing or blurry countrywide on Google Maps. This problem was first discovered in Google Maps for Android app. Then, it turns out the problem is not platform-specific and countrywide. The satellite images are also blurry in the maps.google.com.tr domain since September 2015, but not in the maps.google.com domain. Lots of people are reporting the same issue in Google product forums but the problem still continues and there is not any statement made by Google about the issue. There is no problem in satellite images with Bing Maps, Yandex Maps, Yahoo Maps and Apple's Maps. Also the Google Earth and Google Street Views apps are removed from Turkish Apple Store and Google Play Store.
Maps TimeLine is also not available on Google Maps for Mobile. Just as the satellite view problem, Location History can be seen on "google.com/maps" domain, but not on the mobile phone and "google.com.tr/maps" domain.
North America
In November 2015, the City of Adelanto, California adopted ordinances that allow for the cultivation of Medical Marijuana inside of the cities industrial parks 2, 3 and 4. Since this has happened the industrial parks have been covered over in Google Earth and only show up as blank white shapes. The parks are completely covered over. Google Earth also stopped showing parcels of land and APN numbers. Industrial Park 2 is within the borders of Yucca Rd., Raccoon Rd., Koala Rd. and Rancho Rd.