Belgium Ministry Of Defence Sues Google For Not Blurring Military Sites On Maps

Another European government agency has set its sights on Google for what it may feel are unethical tech practices. Belgium’s Ministry of Defence announced Friday it would sue Google for not doing enough to conceal military bases on Google Maps, Reuters reported.

The Belgian ministry accused Google of not adequately blurring out important sites, like nuclear stations and air force bases. The search engine giant has reduced the visibility of military bases for other world governments over the years over concerns that offering detailed looks at their layouts could compromise national security. That applies for Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Street View.

The Pentagon issued an order in 2008 demanding military sites not let Google take panoramic images of the bases. Google complied, but according to a Belgian Ministry of Defence spokesperson, they have not extended the same courtesy to Belgium’s state secrets.

“The Ministry of Defence will sue Google,” the spokesperson matter-of-factly said, per Reuters.

A Google spokesperson in Belgium told Reuters that the tech firm had been working with Belgium’s government for two years on addressing these issues. The spokesperson claimed Google had done what it was asked and followed Belgian law, calling it a “shame” that the ministry had decided to sue the company.

The share price for Google parent company Alphabet, Inc. (GOOG) dipped slightly on Friday.

Google has run into trouble, legal and otherwise, several times in 2018. The European Union hit Google with a record $5 billion fine in July over antitrust concerns. According to the commission, Google forced mobile hardware manufacturers to pre-install Google apps on phones running the company’s Android operating system, which reduced customer choice. The EU is known to be more strict about antitrust practices than the U.S.

The firm has also seen some employees publicly resign in protest over the company’s rumored decision to bring its search engine back to China in censored form. CEO Sundar Pichai insists such a project is nowhere close to happening, but there have been concerns over upper management’s perceived lack of transparency with Google employees over the project.