A few months ago, I was introduced by some family members to Google Earth. Not only was I able to see pictures of my house, I was able to put in different addresses and look at satellite photos of just about anyone's house. I put in my uncle's address in Florida, and could even see the cars parked in front of his house. If that wasn't enough, I was even able to see my family's house in Argentina.
Now, only a couple of weeks ago, I was told about local.live.com , and for this site, you don't have to download anything, and you can look at your house from north, south, east and west (but it doesn't have this option for ALL areas yet). I can clearly see all the cars parked in my driveway, and can even see one car in the process of pulling in to the driveway!
Kind of makes me think, uh oh, what was I doing outside when these pictures were taken?
And as time goes by, and these pictures get better and clearer, will we get to the point where instead of looking at pictures taken anywhere from a year or two ago, to looking at live feeds?
I'm amazed there aren't more protests against this. While I'm fully aware that when I'm walking down the street I'm fair game for being photographed because I'm in public, I don't exactly consider my backyard to be "public" –and there are many things you can do in your backyard that you wouldn't exactly want just anyone to know about.
Does this mean the only privacy I can get will be inside my house, and away from windows? I think now more than ever, that the line between public domain, and privacy is being pushed to the point where it has become blurry. I know I’m not important enough for someone to stalk me, but I don’t like how easy it can be for someone to intrude in a private moment because they can.
Travis Carter @ Sun, 02/26/2006 - 3:41pm
I agree with you. I took a "Media and the Law" class last semester and the issue of privacy was discussed. If you not a public person (celebrity, politician), it would seem you have a pretty good case against a photographer (or machine) who takes pcitures of you from the privacy of your backyard (as long as people walking by couldn't see) in an invasion of privacy case. So to get back to what you are saying, I think at some point the technology is going to be strong enough to produce video, and either way there will be much greater zooming power so you can actaully see people in the pictures. Sometime in the near future lawmakers are going to have to look at this issue, as I can imagine people starting to bring invasion of privacy cases forward.