( Google Maps)Īt present, Google users can zoom right in to the trucks that carry the missiles. When resolution becomes a strategic toolĪt maximum zoom, Google Maps shows loaded Taiwanese Patriot missiles. "Even if Google opts to pixelate a particular area, there are numerous alternative sites and sources that provide that information," he said. Professor Anthony Stefanidis, director of the Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis Centre at George Mason University, said that this gives tech companies the "ability to impact geopolitics at scales unheard of". While countries still reserve the right to withhold map data, the number of state and private companies that sell satellite images makes hiding the globe incredibly difficult.Īt the same time, this also means that state or non-state actors can beat private companies to the exclusive rights of a satellite image, meaning they can partially censor the image before others can license it. "Google's map service in South Korea is much poorer than it is in many other places because it doesn't have the same quality of data driving it," she said. That hasn't stopped Google from mapping the country in street view and satellite forms. Could they trace a lone jogger's route to her front door?ĭr Griffin explained that in 2016, South Korea offered its state map data to Google on the proviso that it didn't expose sensitive military sites in high resolution, but the company refused. But outside the city, there are fainter, more solitary lines.
Nothing is anonymous onlineĪround Melbourne's Albert Park, Strava's heatmap glows gold with the efforts of cyclers and runners.
Today, this process is largely automated as tech giants such as Bing, Google and Apple, use algorithms that grab satellite data and ground measurements from a variety of datasets to keep maps updated - meaning that they can usurp state topographical organisations.
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Then, when flight became more common, topographical services began the practice of photogrammetry, where stereo images - image pairs that are slightly offset from each other - were compared using a stereoscope which then informed the creation of a topographic map. In a pre-digital era, map surveyors would have been out on foot taking measurements and recording where things were in particular locations, which were then relayed to a map draughtsperson - usually part of a state topographical service. To begin to understand what prompts people to hide things on digital maps, it pays to take a step back to understand how cartography happens today. Prior to GPS, illustration and aerial photography provided the bulk of cartographic information.
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