Map Jack -- Roving Cameras

For any one that is not familiar with Google's Street View technology, then this is likely to scare you even more! Google has a service know as Street View, which is essentially small hatchback cars with a camera attached to the roof that then cruises the streets taking happy snappies of generally unsuspecting people. This strikes me as kind of like unscripted reality television at its worst. Not surprisingly a few civil libertarians and people snapped were a little upset at the invasion of their privacy.

To Google's credit they have developed automatic face-blurring technology that prevents easy identification. However, if the person viewing the picture knows who you are then face blurring technology might not save you any embarrassment.

But back to Map Jack. Map Jack offers a similar service and the template used is the Google Street View template. However, there are several additional navigation features that make it fun and the pictures are of a high resolution.

The service so far has photographed six cities that it has since uploaded to its site. Of the six, four are US cities and there are the Thai cities of Chiang Mai and Pattaya.

Without a doubt there will be some privacy concerns here, particularly as the resolution of the imagery is high. However, if for example you have been snapped on a public street coming out of a "massage" parlour, then the obvious question is has your privacy been invaded and how so, if you feel that it has?

Google Maps Street View

Got any privacy concerns? Well, if you do then you will need to get 'em sorted out as Google is coming to get ya through its Google Maps "Street View" service! Google does not see any privacy concerns here as the vehicles that take these happy snappies are very easily identified in the sense that they are decked out in the Google colours with a roof mounted camera!

Besides, and as Google claims, any content that people find invades their privacy or is inappropriate they can ask that Google take it down or remove it from the site. However, as fair as this might sound on face value, even an inexperienced Internet user will be able to tell you that once the image is uploaded the damage is already done! Indonesians should be acutely aware of this with the latest attempts of the Indonesian government to prevent the spread of Geert Wilders film into Indonesia.

Yet, there are other issues aside from the fact that Google is hiding behind the claim that it is only filming in public places and the very definition of a public place is that it is sans privacy. The question is where does the public domain start and the private domain end.

Can Google photograph someone in their car in their driveway or the parking lot of a shopping centre...perhaps in common and civil law jurisdictions lawyers with expertise in trespass are about to get plenty of work or so it would seem? What about where people who need to be protected from having their identities released, particularly a whistle blower or someone else in a witness protection program. An extreme and perhaps one of those rare to never happenings but even with the odds against it there is still that slim chance...then what? Google takes the image down and apologizes? Damage done! Google is being sued already for alleged invasions of privacy through the use of this service -- let's see how that plays out and then perhaps more definitive statements might be made on the privacy concerns.

In any event the rapid spread of mobile phone technology with camera and video capabilities should have educated people that they will need to be more vigilant with their conduct in both public and private places. This technology means that there is a budding Scorsese in all of us just waiting for that 15 minutes of grainy 3gp fame!