Google Maps with Streets — Privacy
Posted by jonathan at 4:59am EST on 06/02/2007
Google released the new feature of Streets not too long ago. Has Google gone too far?
Google has really stepped up the bar on this one. You are now able to navigate around specific areas on the actual street, not just from an outer space view. Being able to look at an actual store, an actual house, or anything for that matter.
Is this going to raise some privacy concerns from the community?
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Elaine Vigneault
Jun 10th, 2007
I don’t think they’ve gone too far, but I think they should provide some sort of opt out for people whose faces are shown and for people whose home windows are exposed. Or they should have just blurred all that before using it.
Jonathan Dingman
Jun 11th, 2007
It’s a tricky situation for Google because it’s an awesome feature to offer. Something that this actually makes me wonder *how* they did it in the first place. But at the same time, it feels like it’s too much information, as cool as it is.
I agree with what you are saying though, that they should offer an ‘opt out’, but that would be incredible too hard because it would require extensive face-recognition software and add just another layer to the platform for Google.
Elaine Vigneault
Jun 11th, 2007
How they did it is kind of easy. Well, I mean easy as in simple, not easy to execute and make work. I have no idea how that all happened. I just mean it’s a simple idea.
I’ve seen the cars driving around. They rig up a car with about 20 cameras on it. Each camera faces a different direction and snaps pictures every 1/20 second or something. The car just drives around, probably with a GPS, that coordinates the location with the photos. Then load up all the photos and GPS spots into a massive database and bam!
What’s worrisome is how much data Google has and what they’ll use it for. They are a for-profit business with shareholders, so at some point they’re going to trade ethics for profit. That’s a certainty of capitalism.
Jonathan Dingman
Jun 11th, 2007
Oh wow, that’s pretty cool. I haven’t seen those around yet, but I’ll keep my eyes open for them. I don’t see cars all that often anymore since I’m in the subway most of the time here in NYC.
Yeah, they will have loads and loads of data and eventually they will want to sell it. I hope Google proves to be the one company that doesn’t fall into the culprit of corporate stereotypes.