Sure, Google Earth‘s satellite view of the world is expected to keep secretive governments nervous, but when both Hamas militants in Gaza and Pakistan-based terrorists have reportedly endorsed Google Earth, director John Hanke must respond.
https://gizmodo.com/u-s-government-might-want-to-censor-google-earth-260265
Hanke is the guy directly in charge of both Google Earth and Google Maps, and he’s not at a loss for words when defending his product with all the ferocity of a proud little league parent. From The Sydney Morning Herald:
“The evilness is in the philosophies and the desires of those that want to do evil. They will use the tools at hand to do that, whether it’s throwing a Molotov cocktail, or shooting a rifle or using some piece of technology as part of the process.”
…
“If Google Earth didn’t exist, would they have used a tourist map they could have bought or was the real intelligence actually coming from an on-the-ground informant who was working in the hotel and drawing layouts of everything on a napkin?”
The basic argument seems to be, do you blame the gun, the gun owner or the gun manufacturer when some innocent civilian gets shot? And in Google’s case, they are even another step beyond this greyness, maybe the publisher of a general interest book on ballistics—I don’t know, this metaphor is going down in flames quickly.
Read a lot more from Hanke at this link: [SMH]
