The article Google Spy: Zooming in on Neighbors, Nose-Pickers, and Sunbathers with Street View (June 8, 2007, Slate) discusses one of Google's latest technologies. This new technology is the ability to view "360-degree shots around the streets of
San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, Denver, and Miami" from your computer. Vans equipped with cameras roam the streets and take these shots for our viewing pleasure, but is this right? Is it okay for us to be able to "spy" on a woman walking to work or shoppers in the street? A few specific incidents have been reported of some questionable images that had been captured on Google Spy, including a man standing outside of a strip club and some co-eds in bathing suits tanning on a hill. This seems a little harmless, but I do think that these cameras are encroaching on peoples' privacy. It is one thing to see these girls laying out on a
hill tanning, but the article mentions how "the men of the Web go a little crazy and 100 links to the 'Girls of Escondido Road' bloom." Although there are people who will not even bother with these images, there are also people who will take these images and make something out of them, and not always something good. People should be able to go out their daily rituals without having to worry about shots of them being posted on the web. Who knows when you might get caught at a bad moment and then have it displayed for the world to see? Should Google keep Google Spy active, or is this concept too much of a privacy concern?
3 comments:
Now, with the Google Street View, anyone can see detailed pictures of some of America's most popular cities. The intentions of Google, were good, but many people will misuse this tool due to the ability to zoom in. Because of this, I believe that Google's street view tool is an encroachment on people's privacy. One should be able to easily get a feel of New York without having a resolution so fine that they can see into someone's windows. This is just taking it a step too far. I think that Google has a novel idea, but they need to tone down the resolution on their cameras to provide a more private environment. With this alteration, Google can still provide a useful tool while maintaining privacy
Google Street View is just the start of a really useful idea. I think that it shouldn't be used for any regular streets of any city, but for important historical places around the world. The fact that the resolution is so fine that it can determine the color of a cat in a house is very scary. Therefore, the Street View should only be used for places without personal human affiliations. The idea is just too convenient for all the perverts around the world, and could become dangerous.
With Google Street View, there are both negative and postitive outcomes. For example, a positive outcome would be that people can see what is happening in their cities. For the most part people aren't going to sit on their computer and spy on people in the city. A negative outcome would be the what if you did see something that you weren't supposed to see. I think that people should have a right to privacy. I don't really understand why the site was created in the first place. A good idea would be to put these cameras in places that the city feels needs a hightened sense of securty such as schools, banks, and large corporations. I do not see the need to place these cameras in small residencial neighborhoods because people do need to feel a sense of privacy. Hopefuly, Google will decrease the usage of these cameras in areas where they are not needed and focus on the arrangement of the cameras in more suitable areas.
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