Satellite firm pauses imagery after revealing Iran’s attacks on US bases | Planet wants to prevent “adversarial actors” from using images for “Battle Damage Assessment” purposes.
Satellite firm pauses imagery after revealing Iran’s attacks on US bases | Planet wants to prevent “adversarial actors” from using images for “Battle Damage Assessment” purposes.
>Planet Labs, one of the world’s leading commercial satellite imaging companies, said Friday it is placing a hold on releasing imagery of some parts of the Middle East as a regional war enters its second week.
>The company, which brands itself as Planet, operates a fleet of several hundred Earth-imaging satellites designed to record views of every landmass on Earth at least once per day. Its customers include think tanks, NGOs, academic institutions, news media, and commercial users in the agriculture, forestry, and energy industries, among others.
>Planet also holds lucrative contracts selling overhead imagery to the US military and US government intelligence agencies.
>“In response to the conflict in the Middle East, Planet is implementing temporary restrictions on data access within specific areas of the affected region,” Planet said in a statement emailed to Ars. “Effective immediately, all new imagery collected over the Gulf States, Iraq, Kuwait, and adjacent conflict zones will be subject to a mandatory 96-hour delay before it is made available in our archive.”
>Imagery over Iran will remain available as soon as it is acquired, the company said. “This change applies to all users except authorized government users who maintain immediate access for mission-critical operations.”
CockBrother on
If the DoD did not exercise shutter authority then I don’t see why they would do this proactively. Of course, it’s possible no one who’s left there with decision making authority actually knows they can do this…
Nope_______ on
Seems like a good idea to me
DOSFS on
Not the first time someone did this (starlink *cough* Russia)
Apprehensive-Care20z on
yep, that will cost extra!
asadafaga on
All of the other US satellite imaging companies knew not to do this before the war started. Planet if full of morons.
slartibartjars on
I suggest looking at NASA FIRMS website. If you zoom in on Tel Aviv there have been no fire events in the city in 31 days. Then look at some big cities not currently in a war zone, there will be fire events in almost all of them. I’m guessing NASA is censoring data on the FIRMS website.
AngryTrucker on
Oh no! The Americans might feel some of the fear they inflict on everyone else! How horrid!
/s for the Americans
b1gb0n312 on
We have total air superiority, Iran cannot launch anymore attacks and has been defeated so what if they get sat imagery, it’s moot now.
BigMoney69x on
Anyone who is against this needs to move to Russia or China. Can you be against the way the administration is handling the war? Absolutely but we need to applaud any efforts that means we are one step closer to victory. If we lose this war because of enemy propaganda then our way of life is finished. We can no longer take half measures here. I wasn’t in favor of starting this conflict but now that we are in, I want to win.
Planet was stupid in releasing images that are being used by the enemy as anti Western Propaganda plus they could use it for intelligence. Thankfully this has stopped but they shouldn’t have been releasing said images in the first place. All other companies didn’t and I wouldn’t be surprised if they lose contracts over this.
-SineNomine- on
lots of censorships involved from the Americas – middle east, US interests, Russia, Ukraine.
It’s good that China is slowly stepping in, so censorhip will not be that much of a thing going forward.
11 Comments
>Planet Labs, one of the world’s leading commercial satellite imaging companies, said Friday it is placing a hold on releasing imagery of some parts of the Middle East as a regional war enters its second week.
>The company, which brands itself as Planet, operates a fleet of several hundred Earth-imaging satellites designed to record views of every landmass on Earth at least once per day. Its customers include think tanks, NGOs, academic institutions, news media, and commercial users in the agriculture, forestry, and energy industries, among others.
>Planet also holds lucrative contracts selling overhead imagery to the US military and US government intelligence agencies.
>“In response to the conflict in the Middle East, Planet is implementing temporary restrictions on data access within specific areas of the affected region,” Planet said in a statement emailed to Ars. “Effective immediately, all new imagery collected over the Gulf States, Iraq, Kuwait, and adjacent conflict zones will be subject to a mandatory 96-hour delay before it is made available in our archive.”
>Imagery over Iran will remain available as soon as it is acquired, the company said. “This change applies to all users except authorized government users who maintain immediate access for mission-critical operations.”
If the DoD did not exercise shutter authority then I don’t see why they would do this proactively. Of course, it’s possible no one who’s left there with decision making authority actually knows they can do this…
Seems like a good idea to me
Not the first time someone did this (starlink *cough* Russia)
yep, that will cost extra!
All of the other US satellite imaging companies knew not to do this before the war started. Planet if full of morons.
I suggest looking at NASA FIRMS website. If you zoom in on Tel Aviv there have been no fire events in the city in 31 days. Then look at some big cities not currently in a war zone, there will be fire events in almost all of them. I’m guessing NASA is censoring data on the FIRMS website.
Oh no! The Americans might feel some of the fear they inflict on everyone else! How horrid!
/s for the Americans
We have total air superiority, Iran cannot launch anymore attacks and has been defeated so what if they get sat imagery, it’s moot now.
Anyone who is against this needs to move to Russia or China. Can you be against the way the administration is handling the war? Absolutely but we need to applaud any efforts that means we are one step closer to victory. If we lose this war because of enemy propaganda then our way of life is finished. We can no longer take half measures here. I wasn’t in favor of starting this conflict but now that we are in, I want to win.
Planet was stupid in releasing images that are being used by the enemy as anti Western Propaganda plus they could use it for intelligence. Thankfully this has stopped but they shouldn’t have been releasing said images in the first place. All other companies didn’t and I wouldn’t be surprised if they lose contracts over this.
lots of censorships involved from the Americas – middle east, US interests, Russia, Ukraine.
It’s good that China is slowly stepping in, so censorhip will not be that much of a thing going forward.