It was suprising when the sources from the Maharashtra home ministry confirmed that all the 10 terrorists involved in the Mumbai attack got familiar with the terrain of the city by using the Google Earth service. Google Earth is a virtual globe program that was originally called Earth Viewer. It maps the earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS 3D globe.
One Times report said that nine of the 16 fidayeens had lived in Mumbai to recce (reconnoitre) the terrain. Another report said “the ten terrorists had not come to Mumbai before this to conduct any 'recce' and they had learnt about the locations with the help of Google Earth". This highlights the dilemma that Google Earth/Google Maps (and its Microsoft and Yahoo counterparts) face in making available information that might be used for deadly purposes.
Despite such complaints, Google Maps still provide aerial photos of sensitive sites such as the French defense ministry. Even if Google Earth does not (as one humorist suggested) provide real-time imagery, Google (and others) provide plenty of pictures that would be hard (if not impossible) to obtain by a terrorist or other non-governmental attacker.
It’s one thing to say that “everybody’s doing it” and thus no individual firm faces any need for self-restraint on sensitive locales. On the other hand, as more crimes (or military attacks) are committed using such tools, there will be public pressure to do something about this problem.
Lets hope no such tools are made available for such destructive acts.
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