Israel's Military Has Its Own Verison Of Google Maps To Identify The Enemy

IDF

Forbes: Israeli Military Launches Radical New Google Maps Alternative

“Imagine a tourist arriving in a foreign city,” the Israeli intel officer tells me, “the first thing they do is open Google Maps and look for a restaurant. Google helps them find a place. Helps them navigate. Helps them get there on time. We do the same.” Well, not exactly. The augmented reality mapping application Lieutenant-Colonel “N” is describing is designed to find hidden terrorists, not restaurants. “Mistakes can be fatal,” he tells me, “we need to get the right house on the right street.”

Welcome to the battlefield of the future—artificial intelligence, multi-source data fusion, augmented reality. Everything edge-based and real-time. Except this isn’t really a battlefield, as such. “What happened to us,” the officer tells me, “is that our enemies have adopted a technique to merge into urban areas populated with civilians, we need to unveil the enemy, precisely, and stop the threat.”

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WNU Editor: This is smart. But they better make sure on how they gather their intel.

Japan Picked Its Aegis Ashore Site Based On Google Earth

A briefing slide describing various components of the Aegis Ashore system, as well as different engagement options, including targeting threats using off-board sensors. MDA

Warzone/The Drive: Japan Picked An Aegis Ashore Site Based On Miscalculations From Google Earth

Japanese authorities rejected nine other possible sites based on the bad data.

Japanese officials have admitted that they miscalculated the angles of elevation of various mountains when deciding on where to base one of its two future Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense systems. This led them to determine the only suitable site in eastern Japan was the Araya Maneuver Area, though nine others may have been viable.

Takashi Gomi, in charge of the Japanese Ministry of Defense's strategy planning division, disclosed the error to reporters during a press conference in the city of Akita on June 10, 2019. The Japan Ground Self Defense Force's (JGSDF) Araya Maneuver Area, which already hosts Patriot surface-to-air missile systems, is situated in Akita.

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WNU Editor: Google Earth is just a guide. These officials have way too much faith in Google that what they post is accurate.

Google Maps Reveals Taiwan's Most Sensitive Military Sites

Some of Taiwan’s most sensitive military sites – including its facilities for the US-made Patriot missiles – have been accidentally revealed through Google’s latest enhanced maps. Photo: CNA

SCMP: Taiwan’s darkest military secrets revealed by Google Maps

* Enhanced 3-D maps leave nothing to the imagination including Patriot missile base
* Defence minister appeals for calm

Some of Taiwan’s most sensitive military sites – including its facilities for the US-made Patriot missiles – have been accidentally revealed to the public through Google’s latest 3D-rendered maps.

Lawmakers have demanded contingency plans to prevent the secret locations being targeted by Beijing in the event of a cross-strait conflict, while the self-ruled island’s defence minister has appealed for calm.

Google’s new 3-D maps – an extension of its original satellite mapping of the world’s major cities – feature better imagery and three-dimensional terrain for four major cities in Taiwan: Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, and Taichung, according to Google Earth.

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WNU Editor: If Google Maps knows where these sites are, I am sure Chinese intelligence also knows where these sites are.

This Is How Google Earth Helps The State Spy On Us

Yasha Levine, The Guardian: Google’s Earth: how the tech giant is helping the state spy on us

We knew that being connected had a price – our data. But we didn’t care. Then it turned out that Google’s main clients included the military and intelligence agencies.

The internet surrounds us. It mediates modern life, like a giant, unseen blob that engulfs the modern world. There is no escape, and, as Larry Page and Sergey Brin so astutely understood when they launched Google in 1998, everything that people do online leaves a trail of data. If saved and used correctly, these traces make up a goldmine of information full of insights into people on a personal level as well as a valuable read on larger cultural, economic and political trends.

Google was the first internet company to fully leverage this insight and build a business on the data that people leave behind. But it wasn’t alone for long. It happened just about everywhere, from the smallest app to the most sprawling platform.

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WNU Editor:  A good summary on what we already know.

Here Are 10 Secret Google Map Locations That You Are Not Allowed To See

The Ayioi Anargyroi Military Base Athens is heavily blurred on Google Maps

The SUN: The 10 SECRET Google Maps locations you’re not allowed to see

Mysterious sites that you can't actually view litter Google's mapping service

GOOGLE Maps has a bold mission to document every corner of Earth – but some places are so secret they're not allowed to be snapped.

From military bases, mysterious islands and even a random house in Stockton-on-Tees, there's no shortage of secret spots Google Maps won't show you.

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WNU Editor: My friend's neighbor has his home blocked out by Google. But his neighbor requested it.

Taiwan Wants Google To Blur Images Of Their Military Structures In The South China Sea

Taiwan has asked Google to blur images of new military structures on Taiping Island which are visible on its Earth and Maps services. Photograph: Google

The Guardian: Taiwan asks Google to blur images of military structures on island

Satellite pictures of new facilities at Taiping Island disclosed amid rising tensions over territorial dispute in South China Sea

Taiwan has asked Google to blur images of new military structures that have recently appeared on the hotly contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

Satellite pictures on Google Earth and Google Maps show four large three-pronged structures surrounding a circular building on the western coastline of Itu Aba, or Taiping Island, which is controlled by Taiwan but also claimed by China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

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Update #1: Report: Taiwan building anti-aircraft gun towers in South China Sea (UPI)
Update #2: Taiwan asks Google to blur images showing new South China Sea facilities (Reuters)
Update #3: South China Sea: What's Taiwan Building on Itu Aba? (The Diplomat)

WNU Editor: The Chinese and every other government in the region already knows what Taiwan is doing .... after-all they have their own satellites or access to their images. This is to quell the public from knowing what is happening.

Before Google Earth The CIA Had Their Own Version

EarthViewer images of Pine Valley, California circa 2004.

Tech Insider: The CIA had amazing mapping technology way before Google

Before we used Google Earth and Google Maps to find our way, the CIA used similar tools for spy missions in Iraq.

The earliest version of the CIA's satellite imagery software, called EarthViewer, was actually invented at the turn of the millennium. Starting in the early 2000s, the CIA used it to pinpoint movement in Iraqi warehouses or camps, since it showed topography changes over time.

EarthViewer looked pretty different from modern-day Google Earth, but the software laid the foundation for it, Toni Hiley, executive director of the CIA Museum, tells Tech Insider.

"This technology started in our world for operational reasons, but later crossed over to the private sector to benefit mankind," she says.

WNU Editor: One has to wonder on what are they using now.

New Google Maps On North Korea Show Monuments, Nuclear Complex, Gulags

Map of Camp 22 shows previously unidentified structures -- such as guards compounds or the office of director.

North Korea On Google Maps: Monuments,Nnuclear Complex, Gulags -- CNN

(CNN) -- Ever wondered how to drive from the center of Pyongyang, the showcase capital of North Korea, to Yongbyon, the location of the secretive regime's main nuclear complex?

Well, a recent update to Google Maps has the answer for you.

It has filled in the big, largely blank space that previously lay north of the well-mapped South Korea with streets, towns and landmarks.

Users curious to virtually explore one of the world's most reclusive states can zoom into the heart of Pyongyang and pull up photographs of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, which houses the bodies of the revered former leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

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More News On Google Maps Providing More Details On North Korea

North Korea Streets and Gulags: Google Maps Reclusive Nation -- ABC
Google Maps North Korea -- Wall Street Journal
Google Maps’ New Target: Secretive North Korea -- New York Times
Google unveils its new maps of North Korea -- L.A. Times
Google adds detail to North Korea map -- The Guardian
Google Unveils Detailed North Korea Map -- Voice of America
Locate the Gulags: Google unveils more detailed North Korea maps -- RT
Google Maps Extends Coverage Through North Korea, Includes Gulags -- Red Orbit
Google Maps presents North Korea through a new lens -- Christian Science Monitor
Google Fills In Some Blanks on Its North Korea Map -- Austin Ramzy, Time
Google Maps North Korea With Crowd-Sourced Data -- PCMag
Beyond the Google Map of North Korea -- Evan Osnos, The New Yorker

A Gallery Of Top Secret Australian Military Sites As Seen By Google Earth

Google Earth via news.com.au

Secret Australian Military Bases Revealed By Google Maps [PHOTOS] -- Business Insider

As an ode to Australian and British foreign and defense officials meeting in Australia today to discuss stronger military ties, Australian news site NEWS.com.au has compiled a gallery of top secret Australian military sites as seen by Google Earth.

Previously aviation historians have discovered that the U.S. flew highly classified Global Hawk spy drone missions from a base in South Australia, but we've never seen such a comprehensive look at the secret installations where Australia does classified work and collaborates with other governments.

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My Comment: It appears that you cannot keep a secret nowadays.

51 Things You Aren't Allowed To See On Google Maps

Blurred Out: 51 Things You Aren't Allowed To See On Google Maps -- ITSecurity

Depending on which feature you use, Google Maps offers a satellite view or a street-level view of tons of locations around the world. You can look up landmarks like the Pyramids of Egypt or the Great Wall of China, as well as more personal places, like your ex’s house. But for all of the places that Google Maps allows you to see, there are plenty of places that are off-limits. Whether it’s due to government restrictions, personal-privacy lawsuits or mistakes, Google Maps has slapped a "Prohibited" sign on the following 51 places.

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My Comment: I expected a longer list.

Ex-CIA Analyst Is Baffled By What China Is Building In The Desert

Photos Google Earth

What Did Google Earth Spot in the Chinese Desert? Even an Ex-CIA Analyst Isn’t Sure -- Danger Room

Late last month, former CIA analyst Allen Thomson was clicking through a space news website when he noticed a story about a new orbital tracking site being built near the small city of Kashgar in southwestern China. Curious, he went to Google Earth to find it. He poked around for a while, with no luck. Then he came across something kind of weird.

Thomson, who served in the CIA from 1972 to 1985 and as a consultant to the National Intelligence Council until 1996, has made something of a second career finding odd stuff in public satellite imagery. He discovered these giant grids etched into the Chinese desert in 2011, and a suspected underground missile bunker in Iran in 2008. When the Israeli Air Force destroyed a mysterious facility in Syria the year before, Thomson put together an 812-page dossier on the so-called “Box on the Euphrates.” Old analyst habits die hard, it seems.

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More News On A Mysterious Complex In China

The Chinese Google Earth mystery: Ex-CIA analyst spots strange buildings in the middle of the desert on satellite images -- Daily Mail
Mysterious Structures Shown In Chinese Desert By Google Earth Stump Former CIA Analyst -- Business Insider
What did Google Earth spot in the Chinese desert? -- Yahoo News
Mysterious structures in China raises suspicion -- Smart Planet
I spy: Another mystery uncovered by Google Earth -- Herald Sun

Is Google About To Sink The Navy?

Ship-shape: Google will soon be able to show the location of every vessel at sea and maps of the ocean floor

Is Google About To Sink The Navy? Major Security Concerns Over Search Giant's Plans to Track EVERY Ship At Sea And Make Information Available To Anyone -- Daily Mail

* Search engine has plans to map the entire ocean floor over next five years
* Google has spent $3million on satellite technology and claims it is better at tracking ships than most governments

Google is set to track the world's warships and make the data available to billions of internet users, raising concerns over the security of the American naval fleet.

The search engine plans to offer the coordinates and identity of virtually all vessels at sea on Google Maps after spending around $3million on satellite technology.

The company continues to consult with the U.S. Navy over the plans, as well as with the defence departments of countries around the world.

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Previous Post: Google Can Track Ships At Sea -- Including US Navy

My Comment: I suspect that in the event of war and/or major terror threat .... this Google tool will be put offline.

With Threats Of War And Sanctions .... This Is What Concerns Iran

Iran threatens to sue Google for not labeling Persian Gulf on its maps Photo by Google Maps

Iran Threatens To Sue Google For Leaving Persian Gulf Nameless -- Haaretz

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman says internet giant could face 'serious damages'; Tehran takes offence to some Arab states' insistence on calling the body of water the Arabian Gulf.

A senior Iranian official said Thursday that Tehran could sue Google over dropping the name of the Persian Gulf on Google Maps.

The threat comes after the famous search engine left the body of water between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula nameless on its online map service.

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My Comment:I guess Iran does not care about comments like this one.

Google Map Wars

The First Google Maps War -- Frank Jacobs,

Did Google Maps almost cause a war in 2010? On Nov. 3 of that year, Edén Pastora, the Nicaraguan official tasked with dredging the Rio San Juan, justified his country’s incursion into neighboring Costa Rica’s territory by claiming that, contrary to the customary borderline, he wasn’t trespassing at all. For proof, he said, just look at Google Maps [1].

The digital atlas had indeed placed the eastern end of the border between the countries to the south of the generally accepted line, providing Nicaragua with a territorial gain of a few square miles. Costa Rica protested, to both Nicaragua and Google Maps. The latter relented: acceding to the demand of Carlos Roversi, Costa Rica’s deputy foreign minister, it adjusted the online border [2]. But the former persisted, maintaining 50 soldiers on the Isla Portillos [3], along the southern bank of the San Juan’s main channel. The Costa Ricans retaliated by dispatching about 70 police officers [4] into the area.

News headlines flashed around the world, announcing the arrival of a new type of border conflict: the Google Maps War.

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My Comment: And now Google is opening up a new can of worms by going onto the sea floor.

Mysterious Objects In China Spotted By Google Map Explained (Maybe)

Close-up: Experts say that the most likely explanation is that the clearest of the symbols are used as 'calibration' for spy satellites - a common practice for superpowers such as China

Riddle Solved? Mysterious Objects Spotted By Google Map Satellite In Gobi Desert Explained -- Daily Mail

A Google Maps satellite spotted a series of bizarre structures during a sweep of the Gobi desert in China - and the mysterious objects sparked a wave of speculation that they could be anything from 'codes' to be read from space to practice targets modelled on US cities.

But it now seems likely that the structures are used to calibrate China's spy satellites, according to Natalie Wolchover of website Life's Little Mysteries.

She spoke to Jonathon Hill, a research technician at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University, which operates many of the cameras used in Nasa's Mars missions - who said the symbols are near-identical to US targets used to calibrate Corona spy satellites in the Sixties.

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More News On Mysterious Symbols Found In China By Google Maps

Odd patterns in Chinese desert? Spy satellite targets -- MSNBC
Google Maps Mystery Actually Spy Satellite Targets, Expert Says -- FOX News
Expert says Chinese Gobi Desert structures spy satellite targets -- Digital Journal
China's Area 51? Mystery desert patterns set web tongues wagging -- Sydney Morning Herald
Mystery of unidentified Chinese desert patterns solved ... mostly -- The Guardian
Spy Sat Calibrators? King-Sized Jokes? China’s Colossal Structures Confound -- Danger Room

How Social Networks And Google Earth Are Being Used In Libya's Civil War

How Social Media Users Are Helping NATO Fight Gadhafi In Libya -- Globe And Mail

Every morning at 7:30 a.m., in the picturesque woodlands of rural Ontario, a retired auto shop manager named Janice Clinch helps her grandson get ready for school and fires up her computer for another day of battle in the Libyan desert.

The 59-year-old has never met anybody from Libya. She has not visited the Arab world; chronic pain makes it hard for her to get around. But from her home near Seeley’s Bay, 40 kilometres northeast of Kingston, she joined a committed cadre of social media users who have become, in effect, volunteer intelligence analysts. On Twitter, Facebook and other services, they discuss satellite images, vessel tracking data and the latest gossip from their sources inside the country.

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More News On How Social Networks And Google Are Being Used In Libya's Civil War

Google points way for Libyan rebel artillery in fight against Gaddafi -- The Australian
Libyan rebels use Google Earth to target enemy -- British Forces News
Libyan rebels harnessing Twitter and Google Earth for insurgency -- The Drum
Libyan opposition turn to Google Earth, Call of Duty in battle against Gaddafi forces -- News.com.au
Google Earth, an iPhone compass and experience playing 'Call of Duty' have been vital to Libya's rebel war plan -- The Australian
Nato, Twitter And Air Strikes In Libya -- The Guardian
Nato using Twitter for airstrikes on Libya -- CBR Online
Anti-Gaddafi forces add Twitter to armoury -- Financial Times
Twitter Now a Part of the Intelligence Community's Toolbox: NATO -- TMCNet

Bin Laden's Compound Already Mapped on Google

Click On Image To Enlarge

Osama Bin Laden's Compound Already Mapped on Google -- The Atlantic

Less than an hour ago, President Obama addressed the nation in a special press conference held to announce the death of Osama Bin Laden. The September 11 mastermind was hiding out in a mansion in Abbottabad, Pakistan, about 80 miles north of Islamabad.

Bin Laden's compound is just north, as you can see below, of a hospital for women and children and a cinema. About 800 feet to the west is the Cantt Police Station. There's little information available about the station online, but a Flickr photo taken in February 2007 shows it in rough condition. The station, at that time, was "included in the demolition list of the provincial government works department," the caption claims.

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My Comment: I suspect that a lot of people will be passing by this compound out of curiosity in the next few days.

Amateurs Use Google Earth To Uncover Kim’s Sinister Secrets

Camp 16: Fences and boundaries match accounts by escaped prisoners

From Times Online:

FOR all the billions of dollars worth of surveillance technology directed at North Korea as it breathes fire this weekend, its closed society is so impervious to spying that diplomats in Asia are forced to admit that they might as well rely on Google Earth.

A set of images - “North Korea Uncovered”, released by Curtis Melvin, a keen American amateur - includes a tantalising view of the site where the North Koreans detonated a nuclear device last week that diplomatic sources say may have been based on a Chinese design.

Melvin’s satellite map of the country, collated from Google Earth, reveals palaces, labour camps, mass graves and the entrance to the subterranean test base in the remote northeast of the country.

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My Comment: Kudos to those who work tirelessly to reveal the truth.

North Korea Uncovered - (Google Earth)

(Click the Above Image to Enlarge)

From North Korean Economy Watch:

This Google Earth project offers an extensive mapping of North Korea’s economic, cultural, political, and military infrastructures. Through the topic menu, users of this program have easy access to geographical information on North Korea’s agriculture projects, aviation facilities, communications, hospitals, hotels, energy infrastructure, financial services, leisure destinations, manufacturing facilities, markets, mines, religious locations, restaurants, schools, and transportation infrastructure. In addition to locations of economic interest, this map also displays anti-aircraft locations, the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and Northern Line Limit Line (NLL), incarceration facilities, political monuments, political residencies, military bases, and nuclear facilities.

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My Comment: If you have the time .... this is well worth browsing through.