The Hindu : New Delhi News : Camouflaging sensitive sites from prying satellites

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 05, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Camouflaging sensitive sites from prying satellites

Special Correspondent

`Effort is needed to guard against Google Earth images'

NEW DELHI: Maintaining that it was not for the Army to take steps to curb the images of sensitive installations being shown on Google Earth, Chief of Army Staff J.J. Singh on Monday called for a multinational effort to address the problem.

The Army on its part was devising strategies to camouflage its locations from the prying satellites overflying the country.

"This [satellite images] definitely would give [an] advantage to our adversaries. We concede that these satellite images do compromise our sensitive and strategic sites. But we are not the only ones affected. So a major universal effort has to be there to get it blocked," Gen. Singh said after addressing a defence seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.

Google Earth is free software that combines satellite and aerial images with mapping capabilities.

It allows Internet surfers to see high-resolution flyover images of practically every monument and installation in the world, including homes and streets to markings of fighters planes parked at air bases round the world.

Gen. Singh is the latest among a number of senior officials from many countries to complain about the intrusive nature of the free Google Earth software.

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