With the recent releases of the mapping software's Google Earth and MSN Virtual Earth users have been empowered to explore places they have never seen before. Many users are uncovering some interesting aerial shots of high security locations. This makes me wonder if the proper security measures were taken into account when producing these satellite images and converting them to an easy to access mapping software. For example, many of the United States armed forces air fields are shown with fighter jets in plain view. Check out this link which is an aggregation of all the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird plane locations in the United States. It uses the Google API to plot all of the locations. While the Blackbird has been out of service since 1990, it still makes me wonder if there are other planes and top secret weapons that are in plain view. When you take into account our current war on terror I wonder, is this software putting the armed forces at risk of attack? Is this a national security breach? What do you think?
