Skip to main content
PC Gamer PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • Games
  • Hardware
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Video
  • Forum
  • More
    • PC Gaming Show
    • Software
    • Movies & TV
    • Coupons
    • Magazine
    • Newsletter
    • Community guidelines
    • Affiliate links
    • Meet the team
    • About PC Gamer
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$32.49
View
Popular
  • Essential Hardware
  • PC Gaming Show
  • AI
  • Dune: Awakening
  • Nightreign
Recommended reading
OpenAI logo displayed on a phone screen and ChatGPT website displayed on a laptop screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on December 5, 2022.
Hardware There's no need to overshare on social media now that OpenAI's new chatbots can pinpoint your location from the tiniest details in images
A screenshot from the Google Earth 20 year anniversary video saying 'Google Earth'
Hardware Google Earth has historic street view now and just in case you don't feel old enough already, it's to celebrate its 20th birthday
Google Chrome
Browsers Security researcher claims 35 Chrome extensions with 4,000,000+ installs 'include some kind of spyware or infostealer'
A portrait of a woman from the waist up, with arms crossed, whose face has been rendered unrecognizable by being pixelated. A conceptual representation of individual identity protection or harassment. Square crop with copy space on a clean off-white background.
Hardware Turns out a bit of pixelation won't cover your back (or front) as it's actually very easy to de-censor videos
Participants of the Geoguessr World Cup are pictured prior to the start of the championship on October 14, 2023 in Stockholm. The world's best gamers who can identify a location anywhere in the world after seeing an image in less than a second face off Saturday in a world championship in Stockholm. (Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP) (Photo by JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images)
Puzzle GeoGuessr withdraws from Esports World Cup following furious blowback from the community over Saudi Arabia's human rights record
A shocked man sees something NSFW on his phone.
Hardware Google Messages now uses AI to blur unsolicited nude pics then offers the sender a friendly reminder not to send them in the first place
A demonstration of Stijn Spanhove's AR ad block app for use with Snap's Spectacles smart glasses. Marketing material displayed on a roadside billboard is covered by a floating, translucent red box.
VR Hardware Software engineer creates a real-life ad block using Snapchat's AR smart glasses, but ultimately ends up making something far more distracting than ads
  1. Software

Access Denied! 18 Places Google Maps Won't Let You See

Features
By Maximum PC Staff ( Maximum PC ) published 12 May 2011

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Google has always tried to keep a very open policy with the general public, but it can’t always be entirely forthcoming, as is the case with Google Maps . Google has very little say in what gets censored and what doesn’t, be it for personal privacy or national security. Finding censored objects on Google Maps isn’t the easiest task, as most look like imaging anomalies, rather than some big black bar with “CENSORED” written in large text.

But does Google Maps really need to be censored? In the era of open and available information, nobody likes to be left in the dark, but in the case of Google Maps and other aerial photographs, is there really much need to censor anything? Air bases and military installations certainly have the argument of national security, but they really shouldn’t have their secret projects just sitting out in the open. Perhaps just as interesting as the things being censored on Google Maps are the things that used to be censored (but that’s a whole other story).

Really like Google Maps? Learn 10 Tips and Tweaks ! Need even more? Check out the Complete Guide to 39 Google Apps and Services !

Don't miss these other great Maximum PC galleries:

Countdown: The 20 Best Google Labs Add-Ons For Gmail

Goodbye Flash: The 20 Best HTML 5 Games

Page 1 of 18
Page 1 of 18

Page 2 of 18
Page 2 of 18

Page 3 of 18
Page 3 of 18

Page 4 of 18
Page 4 of 18

Page 5 of 18
Page 5 of 18

Page 6 of 18
Page 6 of 18

Szazhalombatta Oil Refinery, Hungary Hungary seems to have a bit less regard for tact when it comes to censoring things. Instead of light pixelization or blurring, they just color everything green. At least it matches the surrounding area to an extent.

Page 7 of 18
Page 7 of 18

Page 8 of 18
Page 8 of 18

Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory and GE Global Research Center Years ago, KAPL and GE joined forces in the pursuit of nuclear and atomic energies. Be it to conceal government conspiracies or protect corporate assets, both facilities appear to have been blurred considerably.

Page 9 of 18
Page 9 of 18

Page 10 of 18
Page 10 of 18

Page 11 of 18
Page 11 of 18

Page 12 of 18
Page 12 of 18

Decommissioned NATO Ammo Depot Just south of the NATO base in Oeiras is a former NATO ammunition depot. You can actually see the depot in fairly decent detail, but as soon as you zoom in too far, the entire 7 square mile region is covered by huge pixelated block.

Page 13 of 18
Page 13 of 18

NATO Base Joint Command- Atlantic in Oeiras Portugal It may not look censored at first glance, but check out that white building with the multi-colored outline that has clearly been cut from the image. Then try zooming in a bit closer to find a super pixelated giant block covering the entire base.

Page 14 of 18
Page 14 of 18

Page 15 of 18
Page 15 of 18

Page 16 of 18
Page 16 of 18

Page 17 of 18
Page 17 of 18

Page 18 of 18
Page 18 of 18
Maximum PC Staff
Read more
OpenAI logo displayed on a phone screen and ChatGPT website displayed on a laptop screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on December 5, 2022.
There's no need to overshare on social media now that OpenAI's new chatbots can pinpoint your location from the tiniest details in images
A screenshot from the Google Earth 20 year anniversary video saying 'Google Earth'
Google Earth has historic street view now and just in case you don't feel old enough already, it's to celebrate its 20th birthday
Google Chrome
Security researcher claims 35 Chrome extensions with 4,000,000+ installs 'include some kind of spyware or infostealer'
A portrait of a woman from the waist up, with arms crossed, whose face has been rendered unrecognizable by being pixelated. A conceptual representation of individual identity protection or harassment. Square crop with copy space on a clean off-white background.
Turns out a bit of pixelation won't cover your back (or front) as it's actually very easy to de-censor videos
Participants of the Geoguessr World Cup are pictured prior to the start of the championship on October 14, 2023 in Stockholm. The world's best gamers who can identify a location anywhere in the world after seeing an image in less than a second face off Saturday in a world championship in Stockholm. (Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP) (Photo by JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images)
GeoGuessr withdraws from Esports World Cup following furious blowback from the community over Saudi Arabia's human rights record
A shocked man sees something NSFW on his phone.
Google Messages now uses AI to blur unsolicited nude pics then offers the sender a friendly reminder not to send them in the first place
Latest in Software
A shadowy figure looks out of a neon-lit cyberpunk city
Google Veo 3 users long to immerse themselves in the worlds of their AI-generated videos, seemingly forgetting entire videogame genres already exist
A robotic hand holding a red pen on a black background, blending modern technology with timeless utility
X's latest terrible idea allows AI chatbots to propose community notes—you'll likely start seeing them in your feed later this month
Sam Altman looking sad.
OpenAI execs whine about the New York Times lawsuit and user privacy during live NYT event, get roasted by NYT journalist: 'It must be really hard when someone does something with your data you don't want them to'
BERLIN, GERMANY - APRIL 22: The logo of the webbrowser Google Chrome is shown on the display of a smartphone on April 22, 2020 in Berlin, Germany.
Fresh zero-day vulnerability in Chrome found to be actively exploited by hackers in the wild
Cloudflare headquarters in San Francisco
Cloudflare will block AI web crawlers by default, and introduces new Pay Per Crawl scheme that means AI companies will have to fork out for the privilege to scrape
Half of Artificial Intelligence robot face
A 'big beautiful bill' provision to prevent states from regulating AI for 10 years got nixed by the US Senate
Latest in Features
A grocery store with townfolk around it
I played 10 free Steam demos this week: here are the 5 games that made it onto my wishlist
20 foolproof ways to get laid off in the videogame industry
Special Week winking at the camera with a peace sign in Umamusume: Pretty Derby.
Not quite girl, not quite horse: The latest gacha craze sweeping Steam is a bizarre idol management game for anime highschool horse girls
The beautiful visage of Andy Edser, hardware writer extraordinaire, wearing a Bengoo G9000 gaming headset with his thumb down
Budget or bust? My editor forced me to use this $19 gaming headset for a whole week and it's goppingly awful in ways I never dreamed of
A Diablo 4 spiritborn character readies their polearm to fight as they descend a staircase.
Diablo 4 has finally given dungeons their teeth back and the loot hunt has never been more satisfying
A baby with a crown and beard
Quiz time! Can you guess which games these 10 ridiculous patch notes are from?
  1. Annapro carrying case, GameSir Nova Lite controller, SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds, and Asus ROG Falchion RX Low Profile keyboard on a blue background with PC Gamer Recommended logo
    1
    Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads
  2. 2
    Best graphics card for laptops in 2025: the mobile GPUs I'd want in my next gaming laptop
  3. 3
    Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most
  4. 4
    Best 14-inch gaming laptop in 2025: The top compact gaming laptops I've held in these hands
  5. 5
    Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I've tested
  1. An NZXT N7 Z890 motherboard on a desk with port covers removed.
    1
    NZXT N7 Z890 review
  2. 2
    NZXT N9 X870E review
  3. 3
    NZXT N9 Z890 review
  4. 4
    Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 review
  5. 5
    Razer Joro & Basilisk Mobile review

PC Gamer is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...