Sky Box is in the business of developing satellite imagery, but Sky Box is really after "knowledge." Satellite imagery is only the means to an end. Google just bought Sky Box, and that means that "by 2016 or so," Google will have access to "full images of the Earth twice a day." Sky Box is promising a resolution that until recently was "illegal to sell commercially." You can read more on this topic right here.
Guess we are going to have to start redefining privacy! And here's my question: who gets to decide where to point the cameras?
Knowledge is power, said Francis Bacon, so maybe we should make sure that such power will be accessible to us all.
Wouldn't that be democratic?
http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2014/06/10/google-to-buy-satellite-company-skybox-imaging-for-500-million/
When they're orbiting above the earth, the cameras are pointed everywhere! It's not so much who decides where they are pointed as who decides what is done with those images.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly is the privacy concern here? It's can't see you sunbathing because the pixel size is ~1 meter. Using this footage, someone could tell when you left home in your car, and when you returned, but so could A PERSON ON THE GROUND. No need to start "redefining privacy".
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