Google criticized for Big Brother approach to mapping
The US House Committee on Science and Technology has accused Google of “airbrushing history” by replacing satellite images of Hurrican Katrina damaged areas with pre-hurricane images.
Writing to Google CEO Eric Schmidt the subcommittee chairman Brad Miller asked why the company was using the old imagery.
“Google’s use of old imagery appears to be doing the victims of Hurricane Katrina a great injustice by airbrushing history,” wrote Miller.
“To use older, pre-Katrina imagery when more recent images are available without some explanation as to why appears to be fundamentally dishonest.”
Miller wants to know whether a government entity, such as the city of New Orleans, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or the US Geological Survey, pressured Google into making the switch.
In George Orwell’s seminal novel, 1984, the government, “Big Brother” as it is known, routinely airbrushes photos to suit its political agenda. I suspect that Miller might be concerned that something similar is happening in this case.
Residents of the Katrina-affected areas were startled to see to see the old images, depicting a idyllic city, with some residents even thinking that there was a conspiracy to show that reconstruction work was going better than expected.
Google said in a statement that “a combination of factors including imagery date, resolution, and clarity” determine what images are used by Google. Apparently, one of Google’s image providers was able to supply more detailed imagery of the New Orleans area – the only problem was that it was pre-Katrina.
Staff counsel for the House subcommittee, Edith Holleman, expressed concern that people see Google and other search engines “almost like the official word”.
While I suspect that poor judgement is behind this faux pas – after all, it’s not something that would go unnoticed, it does however highlight Google’s power to present reality, not only in terms of what we see on the Internet (through search), but also how we see the Earth itself.
I think (or hope) this is an issue that Google is keenly aware of. Its motto of “do no evil”, which was perceived by some as being a little naive when it was first coined, is becoming an even more important guiding light for a company that’s increasingly shaping our perception of the world.
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March 31st, 2007
Is the fact that not a single cross can be seen on google maps or google earth on the controversial hillside with the Crosses of Lafayette, California which in reality covered with a sea of 3,000+ white crosses in memory of the US soldiers fallen in Iraq (lat=37.895196406, lon=-122.123417682) just chance or does it reflect something more sinister?
March 31st, 2007
Cut Google some slack here. Anyone with a wee bit of technical knowledge would realize immediately that most of these satellite imagery are not “real-time”, in fact they can be even 3-4 years ago. Same goes for Microsoft Live and Yahoo!, so why is the government picking on Google? I think that’s more sinister.
April 1st, 2007
Banter, I tend to agree with you – I think Google offers its mapping service and Google Earth in good faith. I imagine that it’s hard for Google to anticpate every sensitivity that might arise – though the Katrina switch was unfortunate