Comments on: Google Earth: Yet Another Tool To Aid Criminals…

By: AztecLady

AztecLady — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:14:45 +0000

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

By: Sherry Thomas

Sherry Thomas — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:24:02 +0000

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.

By: DS

DS — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:28:02 +0000

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.

By: Ciar Cullen

Ciar Cullen — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:27:36 +0000

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.

By: Areader

Areader — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:00:17 +0000

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.

By: Lorraine

Lorraine — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:00:41 +0000

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

By: Grrrly

Grrrly — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:48:24 +0000

By: Emmy

Emmy — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:34:33 +0000

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.

By: willaful

willaful — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:28:23 +0000

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.

By: Shelby

Shelby — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:13:11 +0000

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.