this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2026
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190
Satellite firm pauses imagery after revealing Iran's attacks on US bases (arstechnica.com)
submitted 6 hours ago by new_otters_raft@piefed.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
19 comments fedilink hide all child 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.

Planet wants to prevent "adversarial actors" from using images for "Battle Damage Assessment" purposes.

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[–] totally_human_emdash_user@piefed.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 hours ago

The incredibly selective quote makes it sound like the imagery is being held indefinitely, but according to the article it is only being held for 4 days before becoming publicly available as normal. Furthermore, the hold does not apply to imagery inside Iran.

To quote more from the article:

“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.”