Google and the JFK Bomb Plot: The Censorship Circus

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: June 5, 2007 12:55:38 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Google and the JFK Bomb Plot: The Censorship Circus



            Google and the JFK Bomb Plot: The Censorship Circus

               http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000249.html


Greetings.  The Google "Street View" controversy
( http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000244.html ) hasn't even had time
to cool off yet, but today we have some commentators musing about the
desirability of major censorship of Google Earth and similar
services.  You see, word is that the wannabe terrorists who were
talking about blowing up JFK Airport fuel supplies were making
extensive use of Google Earth imagery, as do millions of law-abiding
non-terrorists of all stripes, of course.

Calls for massive imagery censorship, presumably to blot out every
conceivable terrorist target from the public's online view, have a
certain appeal among those who always view the Internet and most of
its users with suspicion.  The logical outcome of this reasoning
could vastly alter Google's imagery data storage requirements --
removing enough photos to make the lords of censorship happy would
reduce the Google Earth file system to something akin to a single
"404 Not Found" page.

Let's get this straight.  While there are admittedly a very limited
number of extremely highly sensitive locations for which censorship
of satellite imagery at Google Earth resolutions can be justified,
attempts to extend such imagery blocking to broadly cover possible
terrorist targets would not only be ineffective at its stated
purpose, but actually a potential disaster for public safety.

Ineffective -- since there are myriad sources for photographic data
relating to the vast number of sites -- from shopping centers to
power substations and transmission lines, from schools to chemical
plants, that might potentially be targets.  Most of these are
subject to much more detailed photography by average citizens who
have ordinary access to the "targets" and environs.  Surprise,
removing images from Google Earth doesn't make the locations
themselves vanish!

Trying to hide most such images can be a public safety disaster in
much the same way as overblown efforts to block the public's access
to so-called Critical Infrastructure Information (CII).  All too
frequently, these are merely convenient cover-ups for sloppy and
dangerous operations that themselves put the public at immediate
safety risks that are far more likely than the theoretical risk of
terrorism at such locations.

Given the world we live in, it would be ludicrous to argue for total
public access to all information.  On the other hand, there are
those whose fear of information would turn much of the Internet into
that dead-end "404" -- under government edict.  Attempts to link
Google Earth with the JFK plot fall firmly into this category.

Absolute safety, or absolute government power? There's really
no difference.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, IOIC
   - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net
Founder, CIFIP
   - California Initiative For Internet Privacy - http://www.cifip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com





-------------------------------------------
Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com