Editorial

New images unsettling

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

While no one would object to authorities using GPS to find someone who needed help, the prospect of technological intrustions into our privacy is frightening to many of us.

If you are among those, you probably won't want to visit Google's maps site, which has added ground-level views of many areas, including McCook.

Residents reported seeing a vehicle with an odd-looking camera on top and a Google sign driving around town earlier this year, and if they log in to maps.google.com, they might see photos of themselves watching the vehicle drive by.

We can imagine many uses for the service, such as people shopping for a home or otherwise wanting to get to know a community, but an Internet photo of ourselves walking along the sidewalk or sitting on the porch is a little unsettling.

Comments
View 2 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • Wouldn't it be just as unsettling if a news crew is doing a story at the grocery store and there is video of you getting your groceries in the background then the video is shown on tv and posted the video on that news station's website? I personally don't worry about this because there are privacy laws that state that pictures can be taken in public of anyone. This has been around for a long time. Why people only worry about google is beyond me. In order for me to be unsettled, I would have to see a violation of the privacy laws we've had on the books for numerous years and google doesn't even come close to violating a single one of those laws.

    -- Posted by McCook1 on Wed, Nov 4, 2009, at 4:44 PM
  • They can be taken, they just can't be published without permission.

    -- Posted by npwinder on Thu, Nov 5, 2009, at 11:21 PM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: