Smile, you’re on Google camera!
Smile, you’re on Google camera!
The phrase `big brother is watching has been swept aside by an even more frightening thought: `Google is watching’. That’s right, folks, the Internet juggernaut has introduced yet another “feature” to its growing hoard. Expanding on Google Maps technology, you can now use a program called Street View to intimately study your neighborhood. What is Street View? Basically, Google-branded cars are driving around our big cities with cameras strapped to their roofs taking photos of streets and suburban vistas. According to Google Australia spokesman, Rob Shilkin, Google “just wants to help people find out about their cities and neighborhoods.”
Isn’t that nice? Thanks to Google, perverts, and dweebs have even more scope to spy on us unsuspecting specimens of humanity. I’m sure it won’t be long before some genius hacks into the computer system that controls the Google satellites to peer at us via a live feed. And if desperate twerps in darkened bedrooms can hack into our lives, just imagine what governments of the world will do, if they haven’t already. A chill just wandered up and down my spine.
So what about protecting people’s privacy? Google has said they are working on a program to blur faces and number plates, but it has yet to be released. Until this program comes into being, Google has simply stated it is at the mercy of the “flaws of the real world and human error”. Does that leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy? One couple in America wasn’t too chuffed when a Google car trundled down their clearly marked private road and took photos of their house. This couple is so un-chuffed that they are suing Google for mental suffering and diminishing the value of their property. Perhaps the proposed revamp of the 20-year-old Australian Privacy Laws by the Labor Government will instill some courage into our quivering hearts? It could do but a more worrying question for me is: who’s watching Google??
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/10/news.google?gusrc=rss&feed=technology
http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/google-hits-the-road-in-australia/2008/04/09/1207420533151.html
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23526150-7582,00.html
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23511233-5001561,00.html
(Article on plans to revamp 20-year-old Australian privacy laws)
