Google set to track public in real time

Google set to track public in real time.

A software news site, OS News, recently published a story that has me worried. It seems Georgia Tech has come up with an application that allows Google Earth to track places in real time. The video is from traffic and surveillance cameras and other public sources. The information feed is animated to show real movement anywhere their is a camera--a football game, a public park, shopping malls. Google's own attitude toward privacy issues was summed up when they argued to a U.S judge earlier this year, "Today's technological developments make it unrealistic for citizens to expect privacy over their houses and yards."

The only critic to this development so far seems to be Roger Clarke, founder of Australian Privacy Foundation, who calls the new technology "grossly privacy-intrusive." Of course, the story just broke on the 29th of September. I'm hopeful more people will see the problem with it as it gets more coverage. Half the comments posted on the few write-ups I've read are, "If you have nothing to hide it shouldn't bother you." I don't have to enumerate the problems with this argument, but I will say one post in particular sums it up nicely: This simplistic complacent view overlooks the potential for cynical misuse of this sort of technology and the huge capacity for unintended consequences. (john, 10:45:22am, ABC News) I couldn't have put it better myself.

Apathy over privacy has already led to images of our houses appearing on the Internet without our consent, a myriad of surveillance cameras everywhere we go, and the tracking of visited websites whenever we're on the Internet. Add to this blatant attack on privacy the assurance from Google that they will protect military, government, and police locations, and you have the perfect George Orwell, 1984, plot line. Privacy has become like freedom--if we don't fight for and defend it, we'll lose it.

Sources

"Google Earth Tracks Traffic, Clouds, You." OS News. Wed 30th Sep 2009. Jordan Spencer Cunningham. http://www.osnews.com/story/22267/Google_Earth_Tracks_Traffic_Clouds_You

"Privacy fears over Google Earth developments." Smart Company. Wednesday 30 September 2009. Amber Plum. http://www.smartcompany.com.au/information-technology/20090930-privacy-f...

Virtual eye in the sky sparks stalker fears." ABC News. Tue. Sept. 29, 2009. Sarah Collerton. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/29/2699274.htm