Quote:
Originally Posted by Bama
I hear what you're saying, but Google isn't doing anything that most don't already do. Most folks link this site to that site already so there aren't any real surprises there. That van can't capture any image that someone walking down the street can't already see - so there's no invasion of privacy issues.
If a potential employer really gives enough of a crap about your house before hiring you, they'd drive to it and look at it - or at least could..
What I do see Google doing is providing the best global positioning satellite service/direction services and putting Rand McNally outta biz and making a nice deal with OnStar for units inside new car purchases to monetize the cost of doing this.
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Ehm, I am kinda puzzled by what you're saying about "Google [not] doing anything that most don't already do". Because, in fact, they are. They record the search histories, ad clicks and email traffic of millions of people, and have indexed billions of webpages. They have by far the most information on consumers any company has ever had, and you can be sure that they are using it to maximize revenue ("relevance") in any way they can.
Now, that concentration of information by itself is already quite frightening. If any government comes to power that actively tries to silence dissent (and I'm not talking about the Bush administration or anything like it here), the dangers are both obvious and overwhelming.
Now, aside from that, the point I mentioned about potential employers actually does matter quite a bit. Someone who is only barely computer literate can find out overwhelming amounts of information on almost anyone in next to no time at all. An employer who wouldn't take the 30 minutes to check out where you live in person might very well choose to spend the 1 minute it costs to do it online. In 10 or 15 minutes, that same employer has a pretty good chance of finding out your sexual preferences, political beliefs, previous and current partners, drunken midnight rants, etc.
The information that is online is usually not an invasion of privacy because of the specific bits it consists of, but because of its overwhelming range. The work that previously would have taken a stalker months on end can now be done by anyone with a slight interest in you in a matter of minutes.