After searching around on the Internet I have come to one simple conclusion: Google Earth scares me.For those who are unfamiliar with it, Google Earth, a program that you can download off the Google homepage, allows you to travel the world from your desk at home, streaming satellite photos with a good internet connection and combining those visuals with information Google has compiled. The quality of the photos varies and the image that Google provides can either be blurry and distant or close and sharp. What Google Earth confirms is that, in our new age of technology, privacy is a thing of the past. At the press of a button, eerily recent photographs appear on your computer screen of any location you choose, all over the world. Cars are frozen on streets, but you can count the number of windows on most any given building. According to the official website, “Google Earth puts a planet’s worth of imagery and other geographic information right on your desktop. [You can] view exotic locales like Maui and Paris as well as points of interest such as local restaurants, hospitals, schools, and more.” Though designed as a tool for virtual sightseeing and practical purposes, Google Earth is yet another indication of how exposed we all are. Even without such graphic evidence, it is clear that no information can be kept private in the Google era. With a few keystrokes and clicks of the mouse, a high school student can find the address and phone number of just about anyone. With online phonebooks, personal web pages like MySpace and Facebook, business profile sites, and a great number of other services available to any stranger who owns a computer, the task of keeping personal information confidential and private has become grueling. In this atmosphere it comes as no surprise that telemarketers somehow manage to reach private citizens with unlisted numbers. Even with email protection, hackers find your address and spam collects in your inbox. But the climate is even more severe; now we should all keep the shades closed at all hours of the day, because otherwise a satellite might pick up our activities within our living quarters. As of now, Google Earth does not show people in their images. It is a reasonable fear, though, that it may just be a matter of time until it does. The issue of privacy in America is already so out of hand that our present society mirror’s that described in George Orwell’s 1984. It is no secret, for example, that Google keeps records of everything you search. Furthermore, gmail (Google’s e-mail service) users receive tailor-made ads and options, because the server reads any email received. Would I like to map the address listed in this confidential e-mail? No thank you. I don’t know of any option to turn off this electronic imposition, so I have accepted the fact that Google knows the innermost details of all of my e-mail exchanges. I don’t want to label Google Big Brother just yet, however. The company absolutely strives to hold to its idealistic motto, “don’t be evil,” and we can’t ignore that many other businesses and Internet groups are equally at fault. But of course, in our post-9/11 world, the government is also to blame.Some (possibly paranoid) students joke about searching for phrases such as ‘homemade bomb’ in order to garner the attention of the CIA or FBI. That is not much of a stretch. After all, there was a wave of controversy that followed the disclosure of a secret domestic wiretapping program. Invasions of privacy such as these are absolutely violations of our basic civil rights. There must be limits to the power of the government and Google. An argument certainly may be made that these advances in technology are beneficial in the long run. Listening to phone conversations of potential terrorists may help stop a tragedy. Long lost friends can find one another on the internet. Still, I find it unnerving and downright frightening that it is becoming easier and easier for anyone to say with confidence, “I know where you live.”
