Google Street View against the mighty UK MOD

Google, the giant search engine has been flexing its might by delivering not only maps of the whole world from its satellite but also street view photos from its vehicles driving around streets and highways around the globe.

These street pictures are shown on Google Earth and Google Maps under the “Street view” icon giving people an even clearer view of the surrounding area they are interested in, unfortunately these picture have also landed Google in hot water with the UK Ministry of Defense.

Yesterday reports came out that Google Street View has taken pictures of sensitive military buildings such as the Special Boat Service and Special Air Service bases and a Government atomic weapons research centre. When this was first highlighted yesterday Google said the images would stay because they are no different to what a person standing on the street could see but it seems the UK Ministry of Defence had something to say about this.

It seems that Google Street View offering these images may be in breach of the Official Secrets Act , also that showing these images could support terrorists acts or be used by hostile foreign governments.

A Google spokesman said of the issue: “Google Street View is only made up of images from public roads and so it's to be expected that buildings that anyone can see walking down the street may appear.” And “We're unaware of any official concerns being raised about security, but are of course happy to discuss any issues as they arise.”

Even taking what Google has said into account we today find it interesting that many of the images the UK MOD finds offending and against the Official Secrets Act have disappeared from Google Street View, something Google has chose not to comment on.