Google Street View Exposes Secret Israeli Base

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google-israeli-secret-siteClassified details about a secret base in the Tel Aviv area have been exposed by Google Street View, the panoramic map service launched in Israel’s three largest cities in April.

The new service allows users to see soldiers and vehicles inside the base, aggravating concerns that Google Street View could comprise Israel’s national security and provide the Jewish state’s enemies with easy access to useful information.

The service was reportedly launched in coordination with Israel’s security authorities, which asked Google to erase images from Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street, home to the Defense Ministry and IDF headquarters. As a result, users of the service cannot view the street at this time. However, other secret facilities are apparently fully accessible online.

Journalist and new media consultant Yossi Dorfman revealed in his blog that a secret Tel Aviv-area base has been fully exposed by Google’s new service. The images allow users to see the guard post at the entrance to the base, several soldiers inside it, and vehicles parked in the base with their license plates clearly visible.

A veteran officer who saw the images said their availability on the Internet constitutes security damage for Israel.

“This is a first-rate [mess] up…much can be learned from these images, and someone in the IDF whose job it is to monitor this issue [messed]  up here,” the officer said.

Responding to the report, Google said that its Street View service is offered in coordination with Israel’s defense authorities and is approved by them. Faces and license plates captured by Google have been blurred using unique technology, the company said.

{Ynet/Matzav.com Newscenter}


6 COMMENTS

  1. This is really more of a silliness than security issue. If you buy a map of Israel, you will find roads that end with nothing at the end of the road. Everyone know that those blank spaces are military.

    In the 1980’s I saw a tourist puzzling over a map of Jerusalem and went to help him. In the course of talking he asked me about a few places in Israel he wanted to visit and showed me a map of Israel. His map had all the military sites clearly marked. I asked him where he got this map. He told me he bought it at a tourist shop in Aman, Jordan!

    So in Israel it was impossible and even illegal to obtain a map showing military sites due to security concerns but anyone who wanted to could buy one in Jordan.

    Does anyone really believe that these locations are a secret from the terrorists? This just more bureaucratic silliness.

  2. While the Google blurred car license plates on the street going in one direction, when you “view” from the other direction, the license is in plain view.
    This was not a good idea.
    Too much info:

  3. Wonderful points altogether, you just won a new reader. What could you recommend about your post that you simply made some days ago? Any positive?

  4. I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s not as if Google got any more information that anyone else driving along the same road. If anything, this should help Israel security forces enhance security by allowing to see from a third-party perspective what can be seen by any passerby on the street and close the security hole.

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