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Source: ONE News -
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Google Earth is running the risk of turning parts of the planet into terror targets, according to an expert at an International Geography Conference in Christchurch.
The Google Earth view is accessible to all, allowing users the ability to zoom in on any site on Earth.
Professor Lisa Parks said that, as a result, the popular internet tool is being used in battle.
"There are very sensitive sites that are visible and there are concerns that some renegade groups or terrorist groups might use those images to wage attacks.
"British troops had discovered that an attack against them was instigated by virtue of insurgent acquisition of Google Earth and Google map images of this terrain," she said.
The online giant has since taken action by blurring some sites that governments deem sensitive.
However, Parks said the damage Google Earth can do is even more widespread.
"Within a satellite image you can't hear the sounds of war, you can't smell what war smells like, which desensitises the user."
It has turned Google Earth's focus of caring for the world to viewing it as a target, she said.
"The public needs to become much more literate about satellite images - how they represent the world, how they represent not only war zones but disaster zones, environmental crises."
Parks said that this new technology phenomenon will need strict regulation as "Google is a testing ground for the future of the internet".
