Online Privacy: Naked City Goes 3D On Google Earth

There may be 8 million stories in the Naked City but now Google Earth will be exposing them in 3D images. Google Earth is now providing 3D views of New York City.

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It will be interesting to see whether individual privacy rights in places like the Big Apple will outweigh public demand for high-resolution 3D pics and videos. Internet privacy advocates will have  field day sorting it out in the court system.

Google Earth: Technology, Terrorism and Bhuvan

The subhuman cretins who terrorized Mumbai with a killing spree allegedly used Google Earth to plan their attack. According to the Times Online,  Google Earth accused of aiding terrorists, the Bombay High Court (India) is considering whether to order Google to blur its online satellite imaging in the interests of national security.

Although there are indeed privacy and national security issues involving Google Maps and Google Earth, let’s put things in perspective. The Indian government has done almost nothing to defend itself against terrorism despite horrific attacks against the United States, Spain, London, Bali, etc. since 2001.

When you’re fighting a ‘cold war’ for control of Kashmir with people who from time to time do use terrorism to further political and religious interests, maybe you should take a few precautions. The first that comes to mind is actually defending your borders.

What’s behind the litigation against Google Earth? Competition. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is about to launch competing satellite imaging called “Bhuvan” (Earth). What an amazing coincidence.

In essence, the court is being asked to [Read more...]