For all the good that Google Earth has brought to the world, it’s been a boon for ne’er-do-wells and mischief-makers as well. In the U.K., teenage hooligans allegedly use it to scope out private pools they can crash for impromptu parties. On a darker note, insurgents in Iraq used images from Google Maps to guide their attacks. And the terrorists who killed 170 people in Mumbai last November supposedly used Google Maps images for help navigating the city.
Now an Indian court is considering a ban on Google Earth, hoping to deprive future terrorists of a crucial technology.
Bruce Schneier wonders what we might consider banning next:
Criminals have used telephones and mobile phones since they were invented. Drug smugglers use airplanes and boats, radios and satellite phones. Bank robbers have long used cars and motorcycles as getaway vehicles, and horses before then. I haven’t seen it talked about yet, but the Mumbai terrorists used boats as well. They also wore boots. They ate lunch at restaurants, drank bottled water, and breathed the air. Society survives all of this because the good uses of infrastructure far outweigh the bad uses, even though the good uses are — by and large — small and pedestrian, and the bad uses are rare and spectacular. And while terrorism turns society’s very infrastructure against itself, we only harm ourselves by dismantling that infrastructure in response.
If India succeeds in banning Google Earth, will Frommer’s Guide be next?
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It’s also true that virtually all murders and mass killings in modern history used a strange and terrifying substance called “metal,” and it’s doubtful that many of those acts would have been carried out if this “metal” had not been so prevalent and freely available.
I’m not suggesting an outright ban of all metals, of course, just that the government institute strong controls to make sure that metal is available only to military, law enforcement, and (with extra paperwork) scientific communities.
Seriously, people have a long history of banning that which they don’t understand. This habit should be fought wherever and whenever it arises.
Satiricists have been talking about that for a while. My favorites: 90% of terrorists had bread in the morning – ban bread! 100% of terrorists have mothers – ban parenthood!
The world needs more cross-posting between Schneier’s blog and Freakonomics.
When Google Earth is outlawed, only outlaws will have Google Earth…
Yeah, let’s ban google earth. It is not like there is a analog equivalent to these digital, well, let’s call them ‘maps’ that people can pick up at any gas station.
…oh, wait. Well, we can ban paper maps too. It is not as if people can memorize routes.
…oh, wait. Well, we could always lobotomize them? It worked for us, obviously.
An obvious answer is a ban on guns, leading to a situation where law abiding people will be unable to keep them for defense of self, family and home, while criminals will freely obtain them on the black market and use them to prey upon law abiding people.
Oh wait…
The thing is, Google Earth provides information to the public that would otherwise not be available and it’s only good is satisfying curiosity: quite unlike boots, fresh air, and restaurants.
I 100% agree with Bruce Schneier. We shouldn’t change our way of life because of few. We should be fighting these people.