Warsaw: Poland's Defense Ministry has formally requested Google to obscure images of military bases on Street View, which has long provided publicly accessible detailed imagery. This request, aimed at protecting national security, was reported by broadcaster TVP World.

According to Anadolu Agency, the Defense Ministry confirmed the submission of a formal request to Google, asking the tech giant to mask objects deemed "important for security and defense of the state" across Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Street View services. While the masking process has been completed on Google Maps and Google Earth, Google Street View is still in preparation for implementation.

The ministry's move followed an investigation by Polish outlet Interia, which revealed that Google Street View had displayed potentially sensitive details at military bases across the country. These details included CCTV locations, radar systems, antennas, and even armed soldiers, with imagery dating from 2019 to July 2025. Despite the longstanding practice of blurring major military sites on Google Maps and Google Earth, the investigation highlighted that Street View images of these locations were still fully accessible.

In response to the investigation, the ministry downplayed the risks associated with the imagery, emphasizing that the images are outdated and only reflect the conditions at the time they were taken, which was mostly years ago, rather than the current state of the bases.