Bloomberg Questions Google Earth Critics
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday questioned an effort to compel Google Inc. to blur out satellite images of sensitive city infrastructure in its computer program, Google Earth.
“It is a legitimate concern,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “However, given the number of satellites that can read your license plate from the sky, I think at this point that’s not necessarily where a terrorist would go.”
An assemblyman of Queens, Michael Gianaris, is pressing Google to voluntarily censor images in Google Earth of potential terrorist targets in the city, while also lobbying the Department of Homeland Security to force the corporation’s hand.
Google “understands the government’s interest to set limits wherever appropriate,” a spokeswoman for the company, Megan Quinn, said.
