A Google Street View Car responsible for the 360-degree images found on Google Maps.
Google is kind of intimidating when you think about it. Since the company’s launch in September 1998, it has grown from a useful search engine to one of the most convenient and widely used online resources in the world. Google generates billions of dollars annually and, if you’ve been on the Internet at all in the past ten years, the odds are pretty high that Google has either helped you with a homework assignment, given you directions or satisfied some nagging curiosity of yours. As a culture, we’ve come to rely on Google as our first source of information; I know I consider anything that requires research beyond a single Google search to be “time consuming.” With dozens of online services in place, and a foothold in the smartphone and television market, Google’s growth only seems to be increasing.
You might wonder how this is “intimidating.” Consider this: Google Street View, a function of Google Maps, allows users to obtain 360-degree street level images of various parts of the world. It’s pretty amazing; you can sit at a computer in Connecticut and observe a street level view of Tokyo in seconds. The images are in picture form so whoever is standing on that street in Tokyo will appear on your computer screen as well, whether he’s checking his watch or picking his nose.
Basically, if you’re doing something embarrassing in public, there is technically a minute chance Google’s cameras will pick it up and display it on the Internet. Now, the chances of this are incredibly low. However, go ahead and type Google Street View into Google Images (and yes I do realize the irony of using Google to incriminate Google): what appears is an incredibly strange collage of images depicting human life on Earth. Google Street View has caught everything from crimes to public urinating—in fact, there’s an awful lot of the latter. Google obtains these street level images through the use of Google Cars: vehicles with cameras mounted on tall stands. I’ve never seen one driving around, but if I did I would probably strike a pose, as I could end up on the Internet that evening.
However, not everyone has my sense of humor. When Google recently announced that it’s street view service would be making it’s way inside certain buildings, I can almost understand how, back in 2009, residents of Broughton in Cambridgeshire, England once formed a chain of people in order to block the advance of a Google Car. At first I considered it an overreaction, but this recent news has me reconsidering. Is Google overstepping a privacy boundary?
Before I spread any paranoid notions of a future in which Google’s cameras are being installed into every streetlight, let’s be fair. The service will only be offered to businesses, who can now allow people to see what the insides of their buildings look like before visiting. This could be helpful to budding restaurants with big focuses on atmosphere and ambiance, or even art galleries and museums. Furthermore, the service will be entirely voluntary; it’s not like businesses will be forced into revealing their interiors. Unfortunately, there is a downside to all this free promotion: it’s no longer free. As of January 1, 2012, Google Maps will charge businesses that make extensive use of the company’s service.
I don’t own any businesses, so I (and most other people I know) will go unaffected by this change in policy. Still, I’m not sure how comfortable I am with this new feature. Sure, there are upsides. Google Street View has already helped put criminals in jail for robberies and muggings around the world, but there’s something about the idea of Google as a protector that unnerves me as well. Google’s good intentions have a history of backfiring; it was only a year ago that the company was forced to admit that its street view cars had been collecting Wi-Fi data since 2007. That’s three years worth of data snippets that could be used to…well, I have no idea, but to me it seemed like a blatant privacy violation, and it was.
I feel the need to be clear here and say I am not suggesting a boycott of Google, or even saying I do not like Google. I actually like Google; but there was something those people in Broughton felt that caused the reaction it did. Maybe it was the height of the cameras or simple crowd psychology, but the community came together and formed a line that said, “You are going too far.” It’s a reminder of who ubiquitous companies like Google rely on, and how the growth and advancement of these companies is dependent on the very people who are capable of physically stopping it’s progress when they feel a line has been crossed. Google’s unofficial slogan is “Don’t Be Evil.” As the company integrates itself further into our online and offline lives, I’m happy knowing that we as a society have the ability to make sure they keep their word. •
