Google Earth scares governments.

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Google Earth, free software that combines satellite and aerial images with mapping capabilities, allows a web user to see high-resolution flyover images of Big Ben, the Egyptian pyramids, and the Taj Mahal from any computer.

But Internet surfers can also see images of individuals' homes and government buildings, which many find alarming if not dangerous. Since its debut last summer, according to the New York Times, officials of several nations have expressed concern over Google Earth's detailed display of government buildings, military installations, and other important sites within their borders.

"It could severely compromise a country's security," V. S. Ramamurthy, secretary in India's federal Department of Science and Technology, said of Google Earth. Indian laws sharply restrict satellite and aerial photography.

Similar sentiments have surfaced in news reports from other countries. South Korean officials have said they fear that Google Earth reveals details of military installations. Thai security officials said they intended to ask Google to block images of vulnerable government buildings. And Lt. Gen. Leonid Sazhin, an analyst for the Federal Security Service, the Russian security agency that succeeded the KGB, was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying: "Terrorists don't need to reconnoiter their target. Now an American company is working for them."

American experts in and outside government generally agree that fears that Google Earth is a security threat are overblown because the same images that Google acquires from a variety of sources are available directly from the imaging companies, as well as from other sources. Google Earth licenses most of the satellite images, for instance, from DigitalGlobe, an imaging company in Colorado.

Google Earth was developed as a $79-a-year product by a small company called Keyhole that Google bought in 2004. It was reintroduced as a flee downloadable desktop program, consisting of software that can be downloaded onto a personal computer and used to "fly over" city streets, landmarks, buildings, mountains, forests, and water. For...