Access Denied! 18 Places Google Maps Won't Let You See

Posted 05/10/2011 at 3:11pm | by Paul Escallier

Google has always tried to keep a very open policy with the general public, but it can’t always be entirely forthcoming, as is the case with Google Maps. Google has very little say in what gets censored and what doesn’t, be it for personal privacy or national security. Finding censored objects on Google Maps isn’t the easiest task, as most look like imaging anomalies, rather than some big black bar with “CENSORED” written in large text.

gm censor

But does Google Maps really need to be censored? In the era of open and available information, nobody likes to be left in the dark, but in the case of Google Maps and other aerial photographs, is there really much need to censor anything? Air bases and military installations certainly have the argument of national security, but they really shouldn’t have their secret projects just sitting out in the open. Perhaps just as interesting as the things being censored on Google Maps are the things that used to be censored (but that’s a whole other story).

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The Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland Many censored areas on Google Maps look like low res photos, possibly due to overhead flight restrictions. Aberdeen's an example of one of these areas. Take a look at the northernmost edge; you’ll see that the area has specifically been left at an extremely low resolution, and likely passed over with a blur filter.
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Camp Buckner Military Academy Another military base, it comes as no surprise that Camp Buckner is also censored. We certainly wouldn’t want some malcontent foreign sovereignty invading our esteemed West Point Academy through use of Google Maps.
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Huis ten Bosch, the Dutch Royal Family Prevalent public figures like their privacy, both for their safety and for their peace of mind. Considering that until somewhat recently, the White House was censored on Google Maps, it’s not that surprising that Dutch royalty like a bit of privacy as well.
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Soestdijk Palace, Netherlands Here’s another Dutch royal residence. Huis ten Bosch is lightly pixelated, but this time they went all out. Ironically, Soestdijk Palace is actually open to the public and more of a historical landmark than a current royal residence.
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Elmira Correctional Facility You don’t really think of convicted felons as the type to deserve a lot of privacy, but the censorship of the Elmira Maximum Security Prison isn’t so much for the prisoners’ benefit but rather their containment. With high res images, Google Maps would be a good resource to learn about the facility’s rooftop ventilation.
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NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen, Germany Germany has a censored NATO base as well, except for whatever reason; this one only seems to be a little light on the censoring. In fact, it appears that a tiny portion of the runway is the only thing that’s censored here.
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Szazhalombatta Oil Refinery, Hungary Hungary seems to have a bit less regard for tact when it comes to censoring things. Instead of light pixelization or blurring, they just color everything green. At least it matches the surrounding area to an extent.
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Martonvasar Substation, Hungary Hungary also seems to be a bit more liberal with the pen of censorship. Even structures like your run of the mill power substation are censored. Other substations all over Hungary are censored as well, whether they’re in the middle of a city, or in the middle of nowhere, like this one.
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Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory and GE Global Research Center Years ago, KAPL and GE joined forces in the pursuit of nuclear and atomic energies. Be it to conceal government conspiracies or protect corporate assets, both facilities appear to have been blurred considerably.
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Mobil Oil Corporation in Buffalo We have to wonder what a giant corporation like Mobil might have to hide at its facility in Buffalo. Maybe this has something to do with the soaring gas prices we’re seeing lately. Unblur your buildings or lower the gas prices Mobil! Your choice. Actually, just lower gas prices. We don’t care about your blurry buildings.
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Taiwan's National Security Bureau Headquarters Taiwan doesn’t play coy when it comes to censoring sensitive government facilities. Some countries, like Malaysia, prefer not to disclose sensitive locations by censoring them, granted, the National Security Bureau isn’t exactly in a secret location to begin with.
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NATO C3 Agency, in the Netherlands Another censorship courtesy of the Dutch government, though this one is actually pretty reasonable. You don’t want too many prying eyes learning detailed facts about the layout of an important NATO facility.
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Decommissioned NATO Ammo Depot Just south of the NATO base in Oeiras is a former NATO ammunition depot. You can actually see the depot in fairly decent detail, but as soon as you zoom in too far, the entire 7 square mile region is covered by huge pixelated block.
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NATO Base Joint Command- Atlantic in Oeiras Portugal It may not look censored at first glance, but check out that white building with the multi-colored outline that has clearly been cut from the image. Then try zooming in a bit closer to find a super pixelated giant block covering the entire base.
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All of North Korea Satellite imagery of North Korea is actually fine. The interesting bit is the map layout, interesting in that there is none. If you zoom in, you can clearly see roads, cities, and buildings, but none are labeled. Perhaps Google doesn’t approve of the country’s hostile communist nature.
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Paleis Noordeinde, Netherlands As the Dutch Queen’s work office, so to speak, it’s not all that surprising that it would get censored. What’s interesting is the seemingly precise work put into pixelating just this one building, following along its perimeter.
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Seabrook Nuclear Power Station, New York Hungary isn’t the only one who thinks electric facilities are worth hiding. The US does it too, as is the case with the Seabrook Nuclear plant in New Hampshire. Of course, the US government is likely censoring it because of its nuclear nature, rather than simply because it provides power.
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Syracuse Hancock International Airport As a civil airport, open for public transport, it’s somewhat surprising that Syracuse Hancock International would be censored on Google Maps, but because it’s also a military facility, it is certainly justified. Maybe it’s because of that Pentagon shaped Best Western.

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gogochicken

May 13, 2011 at 5:32pm

Is the SeaBrook Facility ment to say New Hampshire not New york? It has New Hampshire in the Text, and New York in the tittle.

JohnP

May 12, 2011 at 11:16am

I used to fix stuff at Knolls Atomic in Schenectady, NY for HP test and measurement and was all over the place there with a DOE pass that let me walk around. All the buildings are there, just the roofs seem to have been smoothed over and lower resolution. The lower buildings along the river have a ton of piping all over them (that is where all the "Good" stuff is tested). there is only a couple of building up on the hill that are even remotely interesting.

A couple of interesting facts. One is that KAPL has one of the most RADIOACTIVE parking lots in the US. Leftover tailings in the 70s and 80s were used as fill when they leveled and repaved the parking lot. The other was watching the safety film every year for 20 years. Two long double blasts on the sirens meant "run like hell". One long and one short blast meant "stay where you are and take cover". Or maybe it was the other way around...Heh.

someuid

May 11, 2011 at 7:31am

Looking at North Korea with local photos turned on is amazing. The streets are w-i-d-e and there isn't a car to be seen. Bridges along the border taken out during the Korean War are still unrepaired (check along the NE border with China). Also look at the NW towns near China. You'll see one photo showing the Chinese side of the river with large, well maintained buildings. On the Korean side, rusting ships, dilapitated buildings, and military guards/police wandering around the civilians.

Holly Golightly

May 10, 2011 at 10:18pm

Wow, the "queen" has to report to an office... I am glad the days of monarchy are over.

chart2006

May 10, 2011 at 9:03pm

What no Area 51?

Psychic51

May 11, 2011 at 11:30am

Actually, Area 51 isn't censored at all.

Course, all the really good stuff is underground anyway.

AndroRabbit

May 10, 2011 at 8:31pm

They blur out strange things like tractor trailers that have numbers painted on the roofs, and the same for many police vehicles or many kinds of numbered vehicles. Try scanning traffic on random roads and you will probably find many of the big rigs are painted over.

I work near a police building which always has a sort of tactical response truck out back. It looks a lot like a big ambulance except with extra antennae on it.   In any case, I can walk nearly right up to this truck and see it from five feet away through a fence, but in Google maps, the outline of the truck is painted over. Crudely. Poorly. But they have attempted to erase it from being seen. Except, I can see it. Dumb.

Google also painted over the roof of the tractor trailer van that used to be parked where I work. We used it as closet. It was an asset to nobody's national security. But Google painted it solid white anyway.

Meanwhile they and all the other mapping companies STILL treat my building's back parking lot as if it's a through road and direct people down it at break-neck speed only to have to stop suddenly when the parking lot ends. And they get mad at us (if they haven't run us down by then) for daring to have our parking lot that goes nowhere end like that when Google maps and Yahoomaps and every GPS map clearly shows it's a road. Like it's our fault these maps are wrong and nobody will update them.

This should be a lesson to all of us: Google and the others don't always get roads right, and sometimes they paint over things for no reason.   It's fine to use these maps but remember to open your eyes and look around and use some care before taking a map for granted.

eim23x

May 10, 2011 at 8:25pm

The State of Israel is also blocked in zoom from Ariel view to certain level, You alone can see street names for google maps.

Sodejm

May 10, 2011 at 7:31pm

Since syracuse airport is only like 10 minutes from my house the only reason i can think that it is blurred is because the 174th fighter wing because they have control over a predator drone which is awesome to watch and the place where the fighter wings is, is not even show in the picture its on the southern part of the field in its private hangar. I always used to see jets parked on the tarmac

ShyLinuxGuy

May 10, 2011 at 6:55pm

I did a project earlier this year for my economics class regarding nuclear energy in the US and used aerial screen shots of each one from Google Maps. Each of the major plants are so visible, that you could see the little details-the strands of pylons marching off in the distance, cars and other vehicles, and unidentifiable-to-the-average-Joe equipment laying around. Scary yet cool. Keep grabbing the screen and follow the transmission lines to their destinations.

schwit

May 10, 2011 at 5:36pm

Not fuzzied on Bing.

TMc51

May 10, 2011 at 4:55pm

I'm quite surprised that they censored out Syracuse Hancock. The air force base isn't even near the main hubs, and is far to the back on the other end of the runways.

Nimrod

May 10, 2011 at 4:50pm

this is retarded. clicking the image should link to its location on google, not your postage stamp jpeg.

ABouman

May 10, 2011 at 4:58pm

Nimrod - hey, maybe you wanna try out the red hyperlinked title text underneath each photo (i.e. Aberdeen Proving Grounds) ? Links lead right to Google maps...

Nimrod

May 10, 2011 at 6:34pm

They eye isnt drawn to the red link its drawn to the image. Make the link bold please. And get rid of this FB crap please.

Wingzero_x

May 10, 2011 at 5:47pm

LMAO, I thought you were being condensending, then I noticed the user name. XD

Please make FACEBOOK opt in.

JohnnyCNote

May 10, 2011 at 4:23pm

I wouldn't have expected so many censored sites to be in The Netherlands. Beyond that, I wonder if Pine Gap, in Australia, is censored. It's second only to Area 51 in secrecy and many theories abound about its true purpose. I had a supervisor who worked there while in the CIA.

Needless to say, he wouldn't talk about it, although he was in "communications", as he put it. He took the secret to his grave as he died of lung cancer a few months after I quit in the fall of 2002. I can't say I was surprised, however, as he smoked nearly 3 packs a day . . .

noghiri_x

May 10, 2011 at 4:21pm

@anthonyfg I'd try it.

anthonyfg

May 10, 2011 at 4:10pm

I wonder how you get something censored, do you just send an email?

Because I would love to have the base I am on in Iraq censored, mortars suck.

JohnnyCNote

May 10, 2011 at 7:36pm

What are the chances there's an Iraqi "national" with access to the base who reports targeting info to the mortar shooters? This was a big problem in Viet Nam, among other places.

Stay safe!

FrancesTheMute

May 10, 2011 at 3:45pm

Along with the Knolls Atomic Power Labratory one you showed, there is another KAPL site by Saratoga Springs, NY. It's called the Kesselring Site, and it is where the US Navy trains their Nuclear operators. It's also blurred out on Google Maps. I know about this place because I attended training there when I was in the Navy. Approximately half of all Nuclear trained Naval personnel (known as Nukes) go to this site. The other half are down in South Carolina. I don't know how to get exact coordinates like you guys have, but if you search for West Milton, NY, the site is directly west of the town. The big round thing is called the D1G ball (Dig ball) by people at the site and is where one of the first training reactors was built by the navy back in the 1950's. It's deactivated and decommissioned now, but that big concrete ball is still there. It's the containment structure for the reactor that was inside.

You can get a better view of the site here: http://albarchive.merlinone.net/THUMBS/TDIR0167/X00371_9.JPG Funny that it's blurred out on Google Maps, but that picture is declassified and shows more than what you would see on the maps.