American firm Planet Labs PBC on Tuesday said it had further delayed access to its satellite imagery of the Middle East to 14 days to protect US-allied countries there.
The California-based Planet had already imposed a 96-hour delay last week for access to its high-resolution satellite images, which are usually available a few hours after they are taken.
“After consulting with experts inside and outside of government… Planet has decided to take additional, proactive measures to ensure our imagery is not tactically leveraged by adversarial actors to target allied and NATO-partner personnel and civilians,” a statement said.
From now on, all data covering “all of Iran and nearby allied bases, in addition to the Gulf States and existing conflict zones” will be blocked for 14 days, it said.
Planet, founded in 2010 by former NASA scientists, did not say whether this decision was taken in response to a request from United States authorities.
Under existing legislation, any company headquartered in the US that commercially exploits high-resolution satellite images may be subject to restrictions for reasons of national security or foreign policy.
Industry leader Vantor (formerly Maxar) has not commented, but the company has had a long-standing policy of not distributing images of US or allied bases.
Vantor did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment on Tuesday.
Unlike the major conflicts of recent years, the war with Iran was triggered by the United States, which has several bases in the region, and by Israel.
During the conflict in the Gaza Strip, Planet had imposed a 30-day delay while still maintaining extensive coverage of the territory.
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