Open-source intelligence shuts down

OVER THE past decade commercial-satellite images have become the lifeblood of open-source intelligence (OSINT), allowing researchers and journalists to pierce the fog of war and hold governments to account. Now, when a widening war in the Middle East makes those photographs especially vital, they are disappearing. That is turning the clock back from an era of unprecedented transparency.

On March 6th one researcher, who asked to remain anonymous, noted that images of Iran’s coastline that he had viewed the previous day were unavailable. Planet Labs, which operates the world’s largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites, had suddenly changed its policy. After the war began it had imposed a four-day delay on publishing high-resolution images of the Middle East. That changed to two weeks, a period covering the entire war to date, and covered not just the Gulf states but allied bases further afield and all of Iran. Some customers, such as business-intelligence firms, were irate.