Looks like the Google Van was driving around the Valley of the Sun taking pictures because Phoenix/Tempe now has Google Street View images.
Google took plenty of pictures of my sons pre-school which somewhat freaked my wife out, but they didn’t make it into our neighborhood. We’ll see how the Phoenix press reacts to the city being displayed this way.
Update: Looks like today’s Arizona Republic is covering the news.
Phoenix is added to Google Street View today – Street-scene photos raise privacy concern
“People do expect a certain amount of anonymity in their everyday lives, and that’s something that they should be able to have,” said Rebecca Jeschke, spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has been a vocal critic of Street View. “It’s not a question of legality, it’s a question of rudeness, really,” she said.
Don’t be rude Google!
26 Comments
I’ll quote some others from the online world….
Your wife is being paranoid. Nothing to worry about. If someone wanted to do something. They don’t need streetview or anything else. Just a street map and onsite surveilance. Blah, blah….
sigh Not that I buy into that!! Don’t make it easy for anyone.
Anyway. Now speaking for myself and in all seriousness.
DO keep an eye out around school zones. Be aware of who is in the area and what they are doing. It’s doesn’t mean to be paranoid or over the top. But do pay attention.
There has been on going surveilance of schools. Something which hasn’t been well known in the public, for a variety of reasons.
Even if it’s not illegal to photo or video schools in your area. You see someone doing this, call the police and/or FBI. Better be safe, than sorry.
Overseas, we have found school floor plans and school procedures on hard drives, among other things. And OBL has said and has permission to kill up to 2 million children. He already has promised to bring Belsa(sp?) Russia school attack here to American, hundred fold.
There are two reasons they want to do this. One, they just want to kill as many as possible while inflicting the most damage, phyiscal and psycho. Two, they want us to become so mad to spark a real holy war, at least in their eyes.
Also, be aware. The schools which are generally targeted are where the boys age is low enough to not be a threat And girls are old enough to….well I’m not going to say. Just think.
I know most people think I’m nuts. But please, please, don’t disregard what I’m saying.
KoS
I personally love Street View. It’s one thing to have an address, but to be able to see what a building and its neighbors look like is extremely helpful.
I look forward to the entire planet being covered… just don’t catch me standing in my front window naked…that’s for Laura’s eyes only.
@KoS:
I’ve got 4 year old twins going to JK and I found what you say quite disturbing.
Wouldn’t it be better to direct people to other websites that discuss these ‘potential’ attacks. I’m not saying what you’re saying is false – just better said elsewhere.
@KoS:
Who is this “they” that you’re referring to in your post?
I think that Google has positioned themselves nicely with Google Sketchup, Google Street View and Google Earth. I think Google Earth will become the client for Google Virtual World with the Street View Imagery superimposed on the Google Sketchup data. Can’t wait to see! In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the fun found using Google Street View:
http://www.laudontech.com/google-street-view/google-street-view.html
Check out this list of the “alleged” Google Street View privacy invasions already discovered in the US:
http://www.laudontech.com/google-street-view/google-street-view.html
There is even a Google Street View capture of a woman going in for an HIV test!
oh well, that’s public space for ya. If you don’t like this go in disguise everywhere. I’ve never expected any sort of privacy when I’m running around in public.
With that said I find these street view things pretty worthless. Things change with the seasons and infrastructure changes and they lose their impact with the temporal nature of the images.
I hope they don’t come to Tulsa anytime soon….all they will have pictures of is yellow cones and closed streets.
Chris C.
You are right to a degree. But people should be aware of this, regardless of where it’s posted. I don’t think I was being over the top or gross. Plus, it’s the stark, harsh reality we are currently living in. Even if we don’t want to believe it or recognize it.
People shouldn’t be blind to this. And I thought since it was mentioned, the wife wasn’t too happy with photos of their school being posted, I would bring up it’s not only street-view people should be worried(not paranoid or such) about.
And frankly, too many people aren’t aware that this has been going on for years. And most aren’t aware of the information we have found and are finding overseas. Heck alot of what happened in Belsa(sp?) Russia school attack isn’t widely known. Which I won’t go into.
By being aware and proactive, hopefully bad things can be stopped before hand. Myself, I have a 5 and half year old boy. And I have to pay more and more attention to my surrounds, just in case. All it takes is once for the “bad guys” to be right. We don’t have that luxury, we always have to the right.
I’ll steal this little analogy from someone, people who have heard this will know where it came from.
It’s like a shark circling around. It comes in to bump you, testing the rseponses.
No response, then the target is more than likely not a problem. So the shark comes back for a big tastey bite.
The shark comes into bump you. A response is given to the bump. More likely than not the shark will move onto a easier target. Of course unless it’s very hungery or desperate.
DP…. if you mean in my second to last paragraph. OBL and the few others who think like them.
Basically, if they can get us to be soooo pissed off where we go out in the streets and kill innocent Muslims and/or destroy mosques in the US. As a retaliation for their attacks on a school(s). They in turn, could use that to their advantage. Claim, the US is against all Muslims and US hates Islam, so forth and so on. Which in turn could lead to a holy war, mainly in their eyes.
Killing kids in a school or schools would set many many people off. And they are planning on such a reaction.
And…
If James doesn’t think my posts are not proper. Then he has the power to remove.
KoS
ps. I apologize for stating such things. Again I will say, we must be aware at all times. Of course not to the point of paranoia or not being able to function day to day.
I think Google should allow more easier tools/process to request deletion of certain pieces of data, be it a person, face or someone taking a dump.
On the whole, Yes it does raise questions about privacy – but someday we have to answer these questions anyway. Why not now?
I agree that Google and other providers should provide some mechanism to request anonymity(blur faces, remove pict, etc).
While there is no explicit protection of privacy while out in public (in the US), there has always been an accepted level of anonymity. I personally believe this is why there were never any laws explicitly protecting a basic level of anonymity in public.
Until very recently, there were very real limits on the level which your public life could be public. How many people could realistically see a compromising photo? How far could information travel? How fast? How many people could really find out about something? Cheap long-distance, Faxes, Internet, Overnight Delivery… all of these technologies eliminate the isolation that allowed us to retain our anonymity.
In a sense, we were all ants–out in the open, but indistinguishable from the next. For someone to violate that anonymity required some level of intent and effort. A person had to spend some effort distributing information or creating a public display. Perhaps more importantly, there was a person could be held responsible for any unwanted actions (legal or not, right or wrong).
Now, with the advant of “incorporated” companies and modern information technology, that anonymity is in danger of disapearing. It’s easy to proliferate the “public” activities of an individual and there’s little direct responsibility for those actions. Who is to blaim if Google’s StreetView effort causes real and tangible harm to a person? Is a civil lawsuit enough to stop a mega-corp like Google or Microsoft?
That said… anonymity was never guaranteed, only expected. So can Google be held responsible for violating something that was never promised? Not sure, but I for one would prefer to put define some protections for “public” anonymity.
Someone told me about the Microsoft rule (maybe someone here?)–take any action by a company (i.e. Google) and replace it with Microsoft. Does it still sound like a good idea?
Though… One could argue that today’s internet (Web 2.X or whatever the buzz-word is) returns our anonymity by proliferating so many embaressing and unwanted photos that anything we do is lost in the noise again…
where did I hear it… you could copyright yourself and then wear a tee-shirt with a big C inside a circle, and wear it everywhere. Then make a EULA that prohibits anyone from using you in geospatial streetviews unless your strict licensing parameters have been met.
Or move to Canada. IIRR, they have told Google, street-views are a no-no.
KoS
I’d rather fix things here than run-away from the problem. This is, after all, my home.
Some of us still delude ourselves into believing we can make a difference.
I feel ya Cell. I’m in the same boat, so to speak.
I was throwing the Canada point out as an option.
Then again if any of the current Democrats running for potus gets into the office. I may reconsider staying around. I don’t like the idea of going down with the boat. Especialy no matter how much one bails water.
KoS
‘Or move to Canada’
Keep in mind our dollar is worth around $2 US now
@Chris
The best financial investment I ever made was in foreign securities. Something like 30% ROI just from currency devaluation. I don’t even think the funds actually made any money. It’s probably nearing time to get out, though.
@KoS There’s no way I’d move to Canada. I’d be opening myself up to no end of ridicule after I made fun of some friends who moved to Canada (and then moved back).
Cell…there are more places to live than Canada.
Granted it’s much easier to reach than other countries. Personally, I would go to either NZ or Australia. Or even eastern Russia and become a “wildman”.
One thing, depends on ones view, the devaluation of the dollar could be a good thing. More investment here and/or buying “things”. Lower dollar value means cheaper to do business here.
KoS
You mean there are places other than the United States of American (with Canada and Mexico being it’s red-headed step-colonies)? When did this happen? Next thing you’ll tell me is that the United States is part of the world.
The problem with Canada is that there are too many Canadians living there. All the smart ones are already here in the USA.
Weak $ vs Strong $ is a no-win discussion.
I think it’ll be a failure in the long run, but in the mean-time, I plan to exploit it for all I can.
@ Kos
I come to this site for technical information and not worldview rants. I believe the point of Chris C.’s original post was to take your commentary where it belongs…political blogs.
NHL….that may be your opinion. Which is find and dandy.
Please show me how protecting kids and being aware is political?( I can semi-see where you are coming from) I would have never brought it up if James hadn’t mentioned his wife issues with the imagery of their school. (I’m not putting any blame on James)
A rant? Not hardly, if you want a rant I can provide one. I was providing facts and ideas. I think we are seeing two different things.
And world view? If you mean in the above context, it’s not my view, it’s actual events and/or possible events.
Now, if you are meaning the discussion of moving outside of the country? You realize that was a off-shoot of talking about street-view and privacy.
Talking about privacy is political too. Guess we shouldn’t talk about that either.
While we at it, no one should talk about currency. That’s political too.
Btw, like I stated before, if James think it wasn’t proper. He can delete my posts. No skin off my nose.
Plus, isn’t this a “public board”?
KoS
Also, after re-read Chris C post. I’ll try my best in the future to link to items instead.
That way, people who seem to have thin skins or even don’t like to hear things which are uncomfortable, won’t have their panties in a bunch.
KoS
Blah, blah, blah.
More GIS, Less BS.
So back to the street map…
Besides the “way cool” factor, does this feature actually serve any purpose? Is it just a texture-library for Sketchup and similar 3-D building efforts?
Thus far, I’m not aware of any analysis being done on Google’s imagery. At least TeleAtlas claims to performing sign/image/text recognition to improve their vector data (hence they are not selling/distributing the imagery).
Seems like a lot of effort is being put into collecting and displaying these images, but I find their value dubious. I’ve at least been able to use the overhead imagery to improve some decision making in the past. Even the isometric views(Pictometry via Local Live) have provided some level of value.
Usually, if the pictometry material wasn’t sufficient, then an onsite visit was required. Thus far, the street-view stuff hasn’t served any purpose other than to fill some strange, repressed voyeristic adiction for me.
NHL…blah…blah, blah…blah!!
Take the gun away from your head. No one is forcing you to read what others type. It’s called, freedom of choice. Exercise it.
BS….ya right. Don’t scream like a smashed cat when the milk is spilt.
If you want GIS talk. Want to talk about the multiple uses of all this free and low cost technology and information/data? I’d rather not be specific. Suffice to say, anyone with a brain, few hundred people, and relatively small resources can be a serious problem.
And here’s a clue, they(death to america crowd) are very smart. They have no problem using our “free/lost cost” technology and information against us. A perfect example, one of the most highly decorated Marine snipers wrote a book after his service. Basically laying out his knowledge on how to be a good sniper. Guess what, in Iraq they have used the knowledge in the book against us.
And another clue, they are pretty good at IT. Read the recent articles about the OBL video leak. People were surprised by the speed and efficiency in which they took down their network and plugged their vulnerabilities.
It wouldn’t be hard to set fire to portions of the West, in the right time of year. Especially in important areas, like transmission lines. Kinda easy to find where the transmission towers are looking at various imagery while sitting behind a keyboard in a distant land .
Heck load up some MODIS and/or LandSat imagery to determine areas which have already been burnt. Or even look for rainfall data or drought info to help determine areas.
Another example, going back to the school. Have the floor plans. Use sketchup(or similar program) to build a model. Paint it with imagery found online. Maybe even, put someone inside the school to take more photos. Next thing, have a virtual model to train and plan with. It sure is a great supplement to real facilities for planning and training. The only bad thing, during their virtual training, they can’t yell commands in English to those “training dummies”.
Better yet, use the tools and imagery to help determine LoS issues, site selection, response times, so forth and so on. Helps weed out the less desirable sites.
Anyone, pretty much, can do their job from behind a computer with the software and information/data, which we provide willing and blindly.
They sure are saving a lot in costs. And minimize their chances of exposure, the less data collected in the field, the better. Plus, if we do most of the work for them, gather the useful information and data. Heck, no need to get an ally in trouble for providing information, like a nation-state or large organization.
Frankly I have mixed feelings about our industry atm. I have no problem censoring, in times of need, like we did during WWII. Unfortunately, the current times are not the same, our conflict will go on for a long time. And we can’t have open-ended censorship.
So now what? Self-regulation? Have govt impose regulations? Ignore it, and rationalize the cat is already out of the bag and we can’t do anything about? Try to be proactive so as not have any or minimize milk spills?
No where during this “rant”(hahah) did I put my tin-foil stove top hat on and chant “Four Scores and Seven years ago”.
If what I said earlier in the thread benefits one person. Great. One less ignoramus running around. I would be willing to bet, many people were unaware. Just like before 9/11.
KoS