Google Street started today, and they sure take some detailed photos.
There’s a pesky grey and white cat at the end of on my driveway. Who it belongs to I know not. It seems to be waiting for the garbage truck, or a taxi. The photo was taken in early spring, because our tulips are in bloom and our apricot tree is showing off their lovely white flowers. It’s about noon time. The image quality of the newly released (to Toronto) Google Street View is pretty amazing, and though I am not sure of its usefulness, it sure is interesting.
The Toronto Star says that all street names and numbers, people’s faces and vehicle license plates are all blurred. This is for privacy purposes, though if you can plop in the address of a home into Google Maps, get to Street View you can navigate, address and all, down the street and point to a house. The address is clearly on the top of the screen.
My concern is that Google Maps is yet another internet tool for the unscrupulous to use for ill. Who will use this tool and for what purpose? I could see that if someone were to plan a home invasion that an easy way to photograph the house would be to let Google do it.
Many tools on the internet often lead to surprising uses, and maybe Google Maps will be one of them. As the internet ever so slowly inches closer to my family and I, I can’t help but feel cautious about my family’s privacy and safety.
I use Google Street view (a) to look at destinations where I haven’t gone before, and (b) to validate my memory on travels (e.g. turning north or south). It’s definitely after I’ve looked at the usual street maps, because scrolling down a street for a particular storefront or house is pretty tedious.
I try to be cautious about surfacing too much information on the web, but the net is that someone who is really diligent can get a lot of information about me, because I’m so active on the web. I’m not so concerned about the street view, because there’s not anything there that isn’t visible by the average person passing by the street.
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