Well, I guess even Google employees have to have a lunch break.
While at Winco today I parked near this Google car so I thought I would snap a picture. For those who don’t know, these are the Google cars that drive around and take pictures of every street in America so that people can view them on Google Maps.
A little side note here… they are also collecting other data from people, like personal wireless (WIFI) signals and anything else they can get for free. See article here. So be careful. Remember… there are no secrets anymore.
Ironically, the guy sitting in the car didn’t like me taking his picture. If I had been thinking more quickly I would have set my razr phone to “Movie mode” and put forth a focused effort to really make him nervous. But then again, I’m not really the harassing type (these days).
I’m just wondering when one of the following inevitable events will happen with Google Street View:
- Street View Becomes a Paid Service – You know good and well that when enough people get hooked on the service, they will decide to make it subscription based. (can anyone say “HULU” or “Netflix”?)
- Street View Gets Sold to the Government – Oh wait, they wouldn’t sell themselves to themselves would they? (You already know my feelings about this one: Article 1 | Article 2)
- Google Street View Decides to Record Infra Red Signals – As long as they’re capturing your car license plates, kids playing in the front yard, house numbers, etc., they might as well record other sensitive data too. How about, how many people are in your house and what activities you’re engaged in when the car passes by.
I use Google. In fact I have an Android tablet arriving at my house today. But I also have a healthy distrust of any organization that can gather so much information about me without my permission.
Oh, and yes. I still use a Razr phone. So what!
Have you ever seen a Google Street View car in person? If so, what were your thoughts about it?
This country in general, and Oregon in specific has a sever lack of perspective with regard to the laws we let our representatives discuss and pass. We’re passing bills left and right and the public mindset for some reason seems to be “the more laws, the better”. I feel like I’m the only one in Oregon that thinks congress should just stop passing laws. Period. Stick to solving our current budget crisis.
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