Blurred Out: 51 Things You Aren't Allowed to See on Google Maps - IT Security

12 May 09

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Depending on which feature you use, Google Maps offers a satellite view or a street-level view of tons of locations around the world.

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51 places that are blurred on in Google Maps.

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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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Things you can't see in Google Maps.

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The city of Utrecht in the Netherlands: Some sites say that the ban on this Dutch city was an apparent mistake, but it does hold relevance as an ancient city and has served as the religious center of the Netherlands since the eighth century.
Fortress on Castell de Montjuïc in Barcelona, Spain: This hill no longer houses a military presence, but it’s unavailable in Google Maps' high-resolution satellite images. However it did become accessible on Google Earth in April 2008.
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- Nuclear Stations, Energy-Generation Sites and Reserves
- Seabrook Station: This nuclear-power station is located in New Hampshire and is one of two originally planned units.
- UMass Lowell Nuclear Research Reactor: This lab's primary focus is on reactor physics, operations and modeling. It houses 1 MW pool-type nuclear research reactor that has been operating since 1974.
- Indian Point Energy Center in Westchester, N.Y.: Indian Point Energy Center is a three-unit nuclear power plant station.
- Hydroelectric Dams and Supporting Waterways Near Niagara Falls, N.Y.: Niagara Falls function as a good source of hydroelectric power, which is probably why Google keeps these dams and waterways blurred.
- McGuire Nuclear Station: With two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors and an ability to produce 2,200 megawatts of power, McGuire Nuclear Station generates almost half of North Carolina's nuclear power.
- Perry Nuclear Generating Station: The San Francisco Chronicle reported in May 2007 that a spokeswoman for FirstEnergy, the electricity company that owns this Ohio nuclear plant, had no idea why the facility was blurred on Google.
- Oconee Nuclear Station in Seneca, S.C.: Oconee Nuclear Station, which has three pressurized water reactors manufactured by The Babcock & Wilcox Company, is the second nuclear power plant in the country to have its license extended by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
- Oil-Tank Farm in Braintree, Mass.: An oil-tank farm is a storage facility for liquid chemicals.
- Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant: Though closed since 1989 due to protests, this General Electric Co. nuclear boiling-water reactor in New York is still fuzzy on Google Maps.
- Liquid Natural Gas Terminal in Chelsea, Mass. and a Large Portion of an Industrial Port Area in Boston: Both of these areas are blurry on Google Maps.
- Marshall Steam Station in Terrell, N.C.: Marshall Steam Station is a four-unit, coal-fired generating facility located in Catawba County, North Carolina.
- Colleges and Research Labs
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory: Lincoln Laboratory is a federally funded research-and-development center working to use advanced technology to help solve problems of national security.
- General Electric World Research Laboratories and General Electric Main Plant in Schenectady, N.Y.: According to General Electric's Web site, the research component boasts more than 3,000 of "the best and brightest researchers spread out at four multi-disciplinary facilities around the world."
- Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory: This research-and-development facility supports the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, which researches, designs, constructs, operates and maintains U.S. nuclear-powered warships.
- Stony Brook University: Stony Brook University is blurred because it houses Brookhaven National Laboratory.
- Manhattanville College's Dammann and Tenney Dormitories: Manhattanville College, located in Purchase N.Y., is probably blurred because it’s near several corporate headquarters, including PepsiCo Inc., Texaco and MasterCard.
- Noordwijk Aan Zee: The headquarters for ESTEC (European Space Research and Technology Centre and part of ESA (European Space Agency) are located in this Dutch community.
- HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) Antenna Array on the Alaska/Yukon Border: This is part of the site for HAARP, which studies ionospheric-radio science.Miscellaneous
- White Plains Train Station: The Wikipedia page for this New York train station states that "due to security reasons, overhead images of the station cannot be viewed in Google Maps or Google Earth."
- William Hurt's Home: This actor’s home outside of Paris is hazy.
- Playland Amusement Park in Rye, N.Y.: Google will not let you in on the fun at this amusement park, which boasts arcade games and 45 major rides.
- Saint Louis School in Honolulu: Only the football field, the field house, the gym and ellipse are available on Google.
- Comments
- the site of nikols tesla's wardenclyffe tower has also been obscured by google, i found it with no problem on terraserver, the question is WHY?
  
  Posted by: almon, 21:40:09 on 2008-09-03
- You forgot to mention Barbra Streisand's house in Malibu!
  
  Posted by: Fed Up, 21:33:53 on 2008-09-03
- Ramstein Air Base in Germany is where wounded soldiers from Iraq are taken. If they should die there they are not listed as casualties of the war, so double the number of dead US soldiers that is reported and that is probably a more accurate number.
  
  Posted by: Phlegm, 19:45:33 on 2008-09-03
- A small correction to the Singapore item: your news item was published on *April 1st*, 2008 by a blog, not the SLA. It's a hoax.
  
  Posted by: Jpatokal, 04:17:31 on 2008-08-29
- Blurring pictures admits the security apparatus of the given installation is defective or there is activity which offends human rights. If a facility can be breached merely by seeing it in plain view, the facility is effectively unsecured. One of the many "first rules" of security is that the enemy knows the system and blurring of any facility essentially admits the security apparatus is so bad that it can't survive obvious inspection.
- Any good security system's nature should be able to be fully publicized without any functional impairment to that system. It seems we have lousy or false security in many places.
- Also, blurring of regions (Tibet, for example) is an admission that activity is occurring which would offend the moral senses of any reasonable person observing.
- So we know by omission that there activities within which are admittedly inhumane or morally repugnant. In a situational way, the blurring is actually more circumstantially revealing than the actual clean image as it admits defects in the subjects being imaged, then blurred.
- Posted by: esmith512, 18:35:27 on 2008-08-27
- Earthquake areas -- Yingxiu, Wenchuan, Ngawa in Sichuan Province. Big blur.
  
  Posted by: mlazzzz, 09:55:59 on 2008-08-12
- Over a year ago, and confirmed recently, I noticed that Beaufort Castle, in Southern Lebanon, is blurred out. It sits prominently on a high ridgeline, above the Litanni River as it flows South, overlooking both most of the Bekaa Valley, and much of Northern Israel. Since it is occupied by Hezboallah, they may be rebuilding the bunkers underground there, and not want people to the South, or anyone, to estimate just how much they are doing.
  
  Posted by: Tom Billings, 02:36:08 on 2008-07-28
- that bay in cuba where there is a jail.. you know the one..
  
  i can see that for the most part only cities and places of interest are mapped.. but then go to peru and yu have high res all over the andes.
  
  most of ireland is a blur (in reality too!). the hill of tara is strange one as south and north of it are high res.
  
  no doubt some areas have requested not to be seen, but for the most part i reckon it just hasnt been photoed
  
  Posted by: cara, 20:39:59 on 2008-07-27
- Most of the New York State imagery was obtained from the State of NY. Someone went nuts with the censorship there and everything with an oil tank is blurred out. As the images are updated this will go away.
  
  Posted by: Mike B, 05:04:02 on 2008-07-27
- Please add the North Pole to the list.
  
  Posted by: Eileen, 23:58:20 on 2008-07-21
- The whole ARGENTINA is out of planet Earth, if you try to use Google Maps. Check it!
  
  Posted by: Lizandro, 11:29:31 on 2008-07-19
- Argentina is not on Google Maps either... But anyway... Who cares! :p
  
  Posted by: Rafa Borges, 04:46:37 on 2008-07-19
- I am still wondering why Parkersburg W.V. (26101)& Marietta Ohio (45750)are blurred out ? Those 2 cities, along with surrounding communities, have over 250,000 people yet most everything is fuzzy. I know the government has alot of top secret stuff (+chemical plants)around there but geesh, at least try not to be obvious.
  
  Posted by: John, 18:56:57 on 2008-07-18
- Utrecht - it's not the city that is blurred, but just one spot - and that was indeed a mistake:
  http://www.ad.nl/utrecht/zuid/article718727.ece
  
  There are many more cities in teh Netherlads that are ancient, and Utrecht may be "a" religious center, it certainly isn't "the" religious center, since we don't have any "the" religion.
  
  Posted by: Marjolein Katsma, 17:50:40 on 2008-07-18
- Area 51 isn't blurred out because most of Area 51 is UNDERGROUND. If you look carefully you can see the tunnel entrances.
  
  Posted by: Rick Cain, 17:39:28 on 2008-07-18
- The Greenbriar resort is also blurred out. It's in White Sulfur Springs, WV. It's where congress had evacuation bunkers setup for themselves if DC were ever attacked.
  
  Posted by: JLT, 17:33:03 on 2008-07-18
- I can see the white house, the pentagon, the capitol, the air force base in netherlands, in fact all the locations mentioned except Dick Cheney's house. All are in high res too. Maybe Americans are all potential terrorists so can't be trusted with this kind of knowledge
  
  Posted by: netean, 08:32:07 on 2008-07-18
- You can't see any detail on the University of Illinois campus, either. Sure it's got the NCSA, but I wonder what other interesting things are going on ...
  
  Posted by: Deebee, 22:23:14 on 2008-07-17
- This is a very poorly researched article. As many have said above, a lot of the places mentioned (Those that are actually places, and not anecdotal stories) aren't in any way censored.
  
  Posted by: Ben Smith, 11:52:22 on 2008-07-17

07 Aug 08

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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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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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Blurred Out: 51 Things You Aren't Allowed to See on Google Maps - IT Security - The Diigo Meta page

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