The L.A. Times today raised the issue that photographs included at Google Maps with its use of carefully gathered neighborhood photographs might become a kind of invasion of privacy. Their shots of Woodland Hills and the surrounding neighborhoods are impressive and extensive, I have to admit. And - in the future - I could see myself using these pics in other neighborhoods to help locate services. I'm sure some people will use them for more nefarious purposes. But on the tip of privacy invasion my thought is this - TOO LATE. We're already being photographed and filmed as we enter nearly every store where we shop by security cameras. There are frequently cameras behind mirrors in dressing rooms to make sure people aren't shoplifting the clothing they try on. Google Maps is not the trend. It's part of the trend. As technology provides us more information, it also chips away at privacy.
We're already being monitored in one way or another every time we use a credit card. The amount of demographic/purchasing data generated by how we use our plastic is astonishing. Don't think for a minute that someone somewhere is not using that information to market products and services to you or that their ability to accurately predict what you'll buy/want/need/covet is anything less than right on. Human beings in so many ways - ways we not dare admit - are clusters of predictable behaviors. That's why those interactions between Tom Cruise's character and those interactive boards in The Gap in MINORITY REPORT are so haunting. It's not that they're the future. That information is already out there about each and every one of us. It's just a little time before we're consciously greeted with our purchasing history as we move in and out of the mall.
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