Google is watching

Peter Funt
Boston Globe
Monday, Feb 9, 2009

‘THERE was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment . . . It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time.”

That quote from George Orwell’s “1984″ becomes increasingly prescient in light of developments in eavesdropping, pioneered by Google. Recently the company launched a service called Latitude, which allows consenting users to monitor each other’s whereabouts. It’s the company’s latest snooping tool, the most controversial being the Street Views photographic mapping service.

When I tried Street Views by entering my address, I was surprised to see that with a single click a truly Orwellian image popped onto the screen: my house, my car, the newspaper in the driveway. I could zoom in for a clear view of the open window on the second floor and the handy drain pipe that potential burglars might use to reach that window when no one was home.

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Google has been working on Street Views for nearly two years, an incredibly tedious process. As remarkable as the computer results are, they still require hired motorists, known as GeoImmersive Data Producers, to drive up and down every street using 11 roof-mounted cameras to snap 360-degree images.

Boston was among the first cities captured by Street Views, but much of Massachusetts remains unphotographed. For example, a two-hour drive from a friend’s house in Lenox to my daughter’s college in Norton yields only two photos: the entrance to the Mass. Pike and, 96 miles later, the exit to I-495.

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