The Keyhole BBS has posted a file of censored locations on Google Earth. These are locations that the GIS sources for Google Earth pixelated the images for security reasons.
This is dumb on a number of levels. First of all, by censoring specific locations, the powers that be have succeeded in drawing attention to them.
Second, the pixelation is very slight. Apparently, they didn't want to draw attention to them, so they made them just slightly less focused than the surrounding areas. The result is that the pixelation doesn't really hide anything in most cases.
The Bear Mountain Bridge in Rockland, NY, is an example. They pixelated the bridge. Why? This isn't a secret installation. It's publicly visible to anyone who wants to go look at it. You can't see the structure or anything sensitive from a straight-down satellite view, anyway. What's the point? The only thing they've done is managed to say, "Hey, Terrorists, check this bridge out. Consider this for your next list of targets."
Third, much more detailed images are very easily obtainable from a number of sources on the Internet.
Chalk it up to paranoia, I supposed, but don't mess with my toy.
]]>