GOOGLE IS SPYING ON US ALL………

If you’re another old salt you realise there’s nothing unusual about glimpsing the navigation officer taking a noon-day sight.Except that these days checking coordinates is just like pushing a keyboard on your car sat nav. So noon-day sights aren’t such common practice anymore.

No waiting for the angle of the sun at midday; the truth is that using a sextant is rarely leisurely and the need for speed is a need to find a horizon – much better to tap into e-Navigation- it’s easier.It also cuts out human error – having said that as an aside, accidents at sea still continue to occur. (1)

So during the trip to Umm Qasr, Iraq in 2010, the skipper requested two cadets to take a sight which resulted in blank stares: “they don’t teach it them at college anymore” said the second mate.“Well, some colleges do” he added helpfully.

However, at this point I should add I’m in the engine room and know little about navigational procedures; I don’t pretend to, but what I do notice is a similar over-reliance on computerised systems in the engine room, for instead of dipping a fuel tank, an individual will check the computer reading instead.

It’s also a lot easier. And after all, crewing levels have been cut so sharply that personnel aren’t available to dip tanks, right?

And you’re probably wondering what has this got to do with Google.Well, there’s Google Marine Mapping, an subsidiary of Google (I’m sure everyone’s heard of this household name – kids and parents alike say Google’s great for homework and revision) but their marine mapping has yet to be widely utilised by commercial shipping, although recreational vessels such as yachts do sign up.That’s a skipper’s decision for Google Marine hasn’t been seen as the best, their updating of reefs, shoals and sand bars especially noted as being unreliable. These can appear in the marine environment in a very short time. Not a good idea to leave this to chance.

But although Google’s not big on marine stuff it’s no surprise that Google Earth’s 3D mapping has captured the attention of many since its 2001 launch.

So for us, just a day’s steaming from Iraq, it was plain that Google land maps would know exactly where our ship would berth on arrival and how long it would stay; which personnel would use the internet and phone ( almost all the crew), who they would be calling and for what time span.If they ventured ashore ( albeit a very foolish thing to do at that time), Google would know that too.There were 65 British and foreign merchant ships in the Gulf at various times then and everyone of those vessels would be watched and listened to.As well, of course, would be Umm Qasr’s 43k population.

Anyway, Google Earth started for use in real estate and urban planning instead of for the military, although the needs of the 2003 Gulf War were soon matched up to another company – the catchy-sounding Keyhole Inc. I’d heard that Keyhole was funded by CIA money, but assisted by Google know-how both parties digitally mapped every US and British military base, roads and city blocks in both Shia and Sunni neighbourhoods which led to spy cameras and listening post surveillance. To sum up, the CIA benefited from Google, and Google’s involvement gave it a massive financial boost.

Meanwhile in Umm Qasr, Keyhole would be watching the dock area and loading of armoured vehicles, and especially the British Challenger 2 battle tanks rumbling up the ramp.

At £4.1 mn a piece the Challengers would be seamlessly protected by Keyhole interfacing with the latest low-level missile systems.

Sure, it was good to have Keyhole on our side – certainly not on the insurgents’ side – and results seem forthcoming when the post-invasion casualties lessened, a reassuring indication of Keyhole intelligence.

Since the end of hostilities Keyhole, along with Google’s huge technological input, morphed into what is known as the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. The objective being to deliver world-class results from snooping on the web, analysing photos, maps and communications – all underlining the theory that war does produce great strides in science.

But the NGA has come a long way since Keyhole and (quote) ‘maintains safety of navigation at sea and in the air, counterterrorism and counter narcotics‘ – all commendable stuff until we get to Article 7 which (quote again) ‘maintains data, knowledge and analysis that enables ALL other missions.’ (2)

ALL other missions? Yes, you get the picture. Helped along by technology from Google, that family-oriented cute internet site run by former college geeks, the Pentagon’s NGA now has carte blanche to do what it sees fit to defend the free world. Which includes snooping on its own citizens.

A scary thought. Although perhaps not so scary as the boast from a former Google CEO. For Eric Schmidt, referring to his corporation’s surveillance declared that ‘we know who are, we know where you’ve been and we can guess what you’re thinking about.’ (3)This last of course refers to Google’s monitoring of everything that people do online leaves a data trail – send an email, compare retail prices, drive a car – they know everything.

Most people have an armful of facts about Google: much is available on Wikipedia – Wikipedia sharing similar values with Google insofar as it strives for quality information across the planet; still, the market capitalisation of Google from zero in 1997 to US$750 bn today is astonishing. And they started out from a rented garage.But that was a long time ago.Since then Google’s 16 bn active Gmail users means it has access to most of the world’s emails.

The company just isn’t part of the internet – it is the internet.

But returning to the NGA and there’s no doubt that its intelligence in 2010 during our vessel’s stay was unprecedented: troop movements, weapons caches, real-time weather reports, intercepted emails and mobile phone locations would have all been investigated.

So what? – some might say. Military intelligence and mapping is nothing new; I’m sure Julius Caeser had surveyors, and furthermore the excellent British Ordnance Survey maps sure weren’t just designed for day hikers – the word ordnance is a giveaway.As also were the world maps with British Empire countries coloured in red.

But we’re not in the age of Mercator projection maps anymore. And today geospatial maps are information and money; indeed, Google’s control of mapping and subsequent huge receipt of US taxpayer dollars is put to some good use to maintain homeland security and fight crime.It empowers the state but citizens ask: what does it do with all this information?

They do say that information is eventually destroyed, but for a company which is tight-lipped about its government contracting business even refusing to list this revenue in quarterly earnings to investors, (4) there is reason to doubt their assertion.

And governments in fact, are telling us little of where this information is going, much less to the extent in which Google, Apple, Microsoft and others are watching us.

Perhaps we can get a better insight from the world of movies, for the genre of science fiction often gives a chilling look into the future.

So for example, the Steven Spielberg film Minority Report (2002) is set in Washington DC in the year 2054 where a fictionalised government department called Precrime apprehends criminals before they commit a crime.In Minority Report’s Washington DC the murder rate is now zero based upon the government’s ability to forecast what its citizens are thinking and are about to act upon.So a crime can actually be preempted.It is irrelevant that there’s a principle of free will here, i.e., of what is intent and how can a criminal be accused  of a crime before it is committed? – what is obvious is that Report’s government has foreknowledge of a citizen’s thoughts.

Similarly and in the same film, Tom Cruise’s Mr Anderton passes an advertising hoarding which instantly triggers optical recognition: ’good morning, Mr Anderton’ speaks the advert ‘we have some interesting sales items for you.

’Sounds familiar? It should do as an electronic barrier admits us through an airport’s passport control by merely looking into a camera.

Okay, Report is just a film but if you think this is baloney, reflect back to the comments of Google CEO, Mr Eric Schmidt ‘we know how you are, we can guess what you’re thinking.

’So far government, like Schmidt, can only guess our thoughts, I.e., it doesn’t have the magic power of foreknowledge, but the truth is they would like nothing better than to read people’s thoughts.It’s just as well that there is concern and some has come from the unlikeliest of quarters for in the latest backlash against surveillance and artificial intelligence, the use of facial recognition within Google’s US workplaces caused a walkout by their own employees until the matter was dropped. (5)

A victory for citizen rights.But anyway, returning to the ship cadets and they were both good lads, I discovered at a later date that only one was still at sea having passed his second mate’s ticket.Whether he was the one who coped with celestial navigation better I never found out, but the one cadet apparently quit the sea and started a new career with an IT company.He may have joined Google.Despite them knowing everything about us, we can’t verify – it depends on whether Google choose to disclose that information.

1) www.marineinsight.com What is e-Navigation? 21.11.19 (accessed 01.08.20)

2) www.nga.mil About NGA, 22.03.19, (accessed 01.08.20)

3) www.guardian.com Google’s Tech Giant….., 20.12.18 (accessed 02.08.20)

4) Ibid5) Mapping & Google, 2020, Radio 4, www.radio4, (accessed 30.06.20)