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In the wake of recent terror attacks in the city, a PIL has been filed in the Bombay High Court seeking ban on Google Earth which gives access to ‘sensitive’ defence and civilian establishments in the country. The petition filed by Mumbai-based lawyer Amit Karkhanis has taken exception to easy access to satellite images of the vital installations in the country and demanded removal of images of the country from Google Earth.
“In the alternative, I have demanded that at least the images of vital installations in the country be blocked,” said Karkhanis.
According to Karkhanis, ‘sensitive’ areas like naval dockyards and air force bases can be seen through Google Earth. This invites the terrorists to strike these establishments. “The petition is filed against the backdrop of terror attacks in Mumbai,” he said. “Even images of nuclear plants and defence establishments are available on this site. It is a security hazard,” he added.
The petition is seeking a ban on Google Earth to protect information regarding the defence and civilian establishments. According to the petitioner, mapping and imaging are the sovereign functions of the state and no private party should be allowed to host such sensitive data.
The petitioner pointed out that the National Mapping Policy of 2005 which is issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology can be implemented only by the Survey of India(SoI). As per the policy, mapping and selling has to be done only by the SoI. Even the defence establishments have to purchase data from SoI, petition stated.
Petitioner is now seeking the exact details on government talks with the Google regarding sensitive data and also a complete ban on such data.
“Eventhough it is not a detailed mapping, it gives a fair idea to terrorists,” Karkhanis said. The petition is likely to come up for hearing on December 18.
Google Earth, a subsidiary of popular search website Google, is a US-based company. It has been made a party along with the Ministries of Defence, Science and Technology and Information Technology. The Google Earth provides satellite images of any location on the globe through its website.
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Good Job Amit Karkhanis ...! We should stop the usage of google earth showing up vital information.It might be one of point where all the evil eyes look upon for India's potential harm.It should be restricted only to goverment agencies.Keep up the good job and we all pray Google Earth be known of the fact
We should also ban, cars. The terrorists were driving them around to kill people.We should also ban almonds and other food items recovered from the terrorists, which they used to survive for 60 hrs.Cellfones including satfones should be banned, the terrorists were using them to communicate.Of course AK47/56 and grenades are already contraban items for civilians so no point in banning them again thru PILs.
i agree with the contents of the PIL. The government should not contradict it
Great. Another brazen encroachment on individual liberties to make up for the incompetence of the government. Now I am being punished with a Google Earth ban because of something the terrorists did? The terrorists communicated with cell phones. Why not ban cell phones throughout India?
It reminds me some thing like "naach na aaye - Aangan tedaa"; soory, if it sounds silly and stupid to some one. Any way it is my feeling; and example is an example.It is the Individuals and their attitude that requires to be thought and dealt with. We may be childish and foolish in thinking "All Sikhs are terrorists because two sikhs killed Indira", "All Muslims to be blamed because some of the terrorists were proved to be muslims", "All Christians should be blamed because some of them spoil the public places by their interested writings", "ALL RELIGIONS to be banned for the PUBLIC NUISANCE, Sound pollution by loud speakers, Processions, etc, etc"WHO WILL BE LEFT???Kindly try to understand that "Knowledge, Technology and Information" are for sharing for the better living of Human beings. If somebody misuses it, we probably need to deal with those INDIVIDUALS and the CIRCUMSTANCES; but, may not be with the knowledge and facilities......probably... -Samuel K, Mumbai
i completely agree, it is indeed a weapon of mass destruction as said by a noted painter..other than the govt. of india, why should any pvt party hav the right to sell, use or do anything with the satellite images of our country. It puts a question mark on the very fact of sovereignty of the nation. Its a brilliant initiative and i second it completely.
I really dont think Google earth has to do anything. If not google earth, the terrorists, aided by state satillites would have caught hold of indian terrain easily. I think banning google earth is just some one else coming to limelight
Most of the diseases are water born ...so should we dry our lakes, rivers and oceans for it.
If it is the case, Can’t we use same Google earth to catch and attach terrorists?
Google earth is not to be blamed it is the security lapses that has to be blamed. Dont get diverted in wrong direction. If u still want to get lost google earth also cant help u.
Nonsense. You cannot stop terrorists by banning Google. People who need information will get it anyway from another country or their sattelites. we need to sharpen our intelligence serivces and make them more effective.
I hate gogle earth its the main cause for mumbai attacks ,it should be banned and indian govt should impose a heavy penalty of 350 million USDon google
Let us ban cell phones, internet connection and emails. Looks like they could be used for terror co-ordination.
This PIL is unwarranted as the ban on google earth will not do any impact on the information flow to the terrorists. It is certain that these organisations are equipped with much more advanced technology to have more vivid arial view of countries and the latitudes of installations. This is evident by their vide use of every technology to their credit in the recent activities of terrorism. They might be better equippped with vivid satellite images rather than google earth. They send trained mercenaries to survey the installations also. So the ban on google earth will to meet the purpose of cutting the information flow to these evil elements. Rather the blocking of certain buildings and installations will provide clear locations of important places which could be attacked. The need of the hour is not ban on google earth but more concrete security systems in place and working in every ways to intercept the terrorist activities and communication with the help of most advanced gadgets.
Google earth is not really the problem. I agree with the view that we are barking up the wrong tree. Being a lawyer and also in the business of real esttate, Google Earth has been immense value to us. It has aided my business of real estate and even cases for compensation of land under Land Acquisition Act to a large extent. Plus i can well imagine the utility of it for town planners and other municipal agencies. Our cities are badly designed. Many states stand to benefit from it particularly hill states. Plus it aids tourism industry as people visiting the country can have a look at the various places of interest. However i do agree that vital installations should not be shown and it should be banned. the same has been done in the case of USA and there is no reason for not doing it. Hey, even ISRO is aware of the benefit of Google Earth and they are wanting to launch a much higher resolution for India.
Mr Kumar what PIL is filed is atleast to block the sensitive places like naval dock or airforce base etc. It i svery much correct. MAP do not give this information.
It's just an excuse. you can't blame on informative media. if Google earth is aiding so what about MAP which are more in details and are easily available every where so put Ban on all MAPs, Encartas as well.
This is barking up the wrong tree. This may make life a little hard for them but is not going to stop them. There are many sensitive locations which are adjacent to civilian area. How is that going to be blocked? Will these areas also blocked from GPS systems?
what kind of bullcrap of an idea.why dont we ban mobile phones and sat phones.hey,lets ban the internet.lets ban facebook.lets ban 5 star hotels.why dont we ban breathing -that helps the terrorists.doesnt it?. those who want to give up freedom at the cost of security dont deserve either security or freedom.what the nuke reactors etc have to do is keep their facilities underwraps OR cease to exist.arent the US or Russian weapons site also available on the net?. whatever info the terrorists needed IS ALREADY with them.banning stuff now just shows empty headed impotent need to do be seen as doing something.such PIL should be thrown out and the petitioner should be taught basic primary education .he should be stripped off his lawyer status and made to read the constitution 1000 times. those who dont want the freedoms our forefathers fought for MUST leave our country withour destroying the freedoms we have.i dont want to live in servitude to the state.LIVE FREE OR DIE
will ask when it happens on your head the same case i hate google google earth should be banned
I fully support this and it has to be removed and expect all supporters of anti-terrorism to give their voice thro' this, by giving their comments.
The Google Earth has been hosting satelite images for a very long time (may be 2-3 years), many people would have already archived these images in their local storage. Though it still makes sense to me to remove them even at this point.
Google earth images aren't updated, secondly, when it was launched in the begining, one news channel "aajtak" has reported the availablity of VIP, VVIP places on satellite like rashtrapati bhawan, drdo ete, whereas american imp buildings weren't shown. So that thing can be done. There are other satellite imagery systems by microsoft and yahoo also, which needs equal treatment.