15 piped up to “Google Earth: Yet Another Tool To Aid Criminals…”

1. Mireya Posted: Mar 24th, 2009 at 10:21 am

   1 I didn’t like it when I read about it’s introduction, I like now even less. There have already been some incidents involving Google Earth making available images of secret locations of military bases, etc. There have also been incidents of private citizens suing Google for invasion of their privacy. Either something really bad, facilitated by Google Earth, is going to happen, as you say, or the government will have to do something to restrict what Google Earth does or outright shut it down. I find this concept highly disturbing.

2. sula Posted: Mar 24th, 2009 at 12:30 pm

   2 meh, I for one kinda dig GE. Of course most of the places I have lived in my wandering life barely show up on the map, but I find it totally fascinating. I was able to do a virtual flyover of where I lived in Africa and even find my street and a white blob that used to be my house. Made me kind of homesick but also was interesting to see it all from a birds-eye view. Everything in this world can be used for bad or for good and I don’t like the idea of living in fear.

3. MB (Leah) Posted: Mar 24th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

   3 I have mixed feelings. On the one hand it’s nice if you are looking for the layout of a certain area. The DH and I have used it for looking at areas for house buying. I once used it to see if there was a traffic light at a certain intersection because I needed to turn left onto a busy road. I also used it when I traveled to see what type of area a motel/hotel was in before booking. It can be a very useful tool. That said… I don’t like their street view when it comes to what people can find out about me. I looked up our house on street view and you can’t really see it due to the layout of our property, which I we are lucky about. But one street view of the next block over shows two people walking. And with several neighbor’s houses you can see everything, including their car, what’s sitting in the carport, because their house is very close to the road. That’s just a little too invasive for me.

4. KCfla Posted: Mar 24th, 2009 at 1:23 pm

   4 It does have it’s good and bad points. I have noticed, as MB said,that with the street view you can see cars, people etc. But if you look closely, they *do* blur things like faces, license plates, or anything THAT personal. For instance I looked up my house. Not only were the license plates on our cars blurred, but my hubby’s truck has his business name/graphics on it- and they were blurred as well. I can see how it could be used for bad purposes though.

5. Tuscan Capo Posted: Mar 24th, 2009 at 2:50 pm

   5 I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re right, Karen.

6. Shelby Posted: Mar 24th, 2009 at 3:13 pm

   6 It’s freakin’ creepy. However, I’ve been using it in my genealogy search to find out whether the homes of my ancestors are still standing in Washington, DC, and the experience has been amazing.

7. willaful Posted: Mar 24th, 2009 at 7:28 pm

   7 How on earth can they find the time to blur everything personal? Is it done automatically in some way? I find it pretty damn scary, myself.

8. Emmy Posted: Mar 24th, 2009 at 7:34 pm

   8 Street Scene is a little creepier, since it shows real time images of peepo’s houses. Make stalking easy, why doncha? Google Earth itself is not up to date. So yes, you can see military bases…for instance, here in Hawaii, I can Google Pearl Harbor and see boats in the harbor. Those images are months old and NOT indicative of actual presence of who’s in port at the current time. I know this because I went and looked.

9. Grrrly Posted: Mar 24th, 2009 at 8:48 pm

   9 But Karen, isn’t Great Britain already one of the most surveilled countries in the world? CCTV on every corner, tracking on the tube? I see how GE can be invasive of privacy, but no more so than Brits deal with already.

10. Lorraine Posted: Mar 25th, 2009 at 1:00 am

    10 This kind of thing makes me crazy. Our privacy rights and anonymity are fast becoming things of the past. Credit cards, grocery and big box stores know everything we purchase and when. We pretend there’s anonymity on the internet…it’s a lie, everything can be tracked. Traffic lights have cameras and can track where we drive. And now Steet Scene. What a frightening thing that is. We as a society will rue the day that we allowed our privacy rights to be frittered away in the name of technological advances. *Obviously I read Orwell’s 1984 at an impressionable age* LOL

11. Areader Posted: Mar 25th, 2009 at 7:00 pm

    11 But Karen, isn’t Great Britain already one of the most surveilled countries in the world? CCTV on every corner, tracking on the tube? I see how GE can be invasive of privacy, but no more so than Brits deal with already. Yes but those pictures are limited to law enforcement and there is a limit to how many people can see it at any one time. Unless there is a crime and the images are used on the news or something. Besides there may be a lot of CCTV in the country but it tends to be limited to city centres and problem (crime) areas, not so much residential areas. With this GE potentially 6.5billion people can be looking through your net curtains or at your car number plate. Quite a difference methinks.

12. Ciar Cullen Posted: Mar 25th, 2009 at 8:27 pm

    12 I hate Google Earth. My husband and I rewatch Enemy of the State once in a while (because, well, what’s not to like about Will Smith and Gene Hackman?), and we always end up in a discussion about Google Earth.

13. DS Posted: Mar 26th, 2009 at 2:28 am

    13 I just looked at our office. The picture was taken summer before last. I wish someone had told us Google was coming, we would have had the lawn mowed better. Anyway, Google also put a Google watermark on our awning which caused me to have a moment of dismay. Our business sign is blurred out as well as something bright white at the corner of the building which is way too far up to be anything but part of the structure. The address given is also one that does not exist at all.

14. Sherry Thomas Posted: Apr 3rd, 2009 at 1:24 pm

    14 I love Google Earth. No, make that I LUUUURRVE it. I install it on every computer I ever own or use. Couldn’t have researched the topography of North-West Frontier Province without it. Or bunch of other places I’ve never been but used as setting in my books.

15. AztecLady Posted: Apr 3rd, 2009 at 6:14 pm

    15 Karen, it seems you are not alone in your concerns–have you read this?