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Re: What will Google do next?

by spiritway (Vicar)
on Apr 09, 2006 at 21:01 UTC ( [id://542179]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to What will Google do next?

You can type in someone's telephone number, and Google will provide their address. Click on "Google Maps" and you will get a street map of the neighborhood; another click, and you can see a satellite view of their residence.

Privacy is becoming a thing of the past. We are required to give out so much information, just to live, that data mining can now yield a surprising - and to some, an alarming - amount of personal information that can narrow down a search to a single person. If you can get an aerial view of someone's home, I imagine that governments can find out what you ordered on your pizza last night. And who you were with.

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Re^2: What will Google do next?
by eric256 (Parson) on Apr 10, 2006 at 13:15 UTC

    Websites have been around that do that for a very long time, but even before websites that did it you could always use a paper reverse directory or call information. Once you had the name you looked them up in the phone book to get an address. At least here its been doable for ages although i'll admit the satellite view is something new ;)

    Just didn't want google to be catching the blame for something that has existed for ages! And yes I imagine the government has way more info than I'd ever want them to have which is as good of reason as any to fight illegal wiretaps. Cheers!


    ___________
    Eric Hodges

      The reverse indexes were usually quite expensive. We had them in the lawfirm I worked in years ago. You could get a guy's telephone number, look it up, and then call his neighbors, do whatever.

      The difference between this service and Google is simply availablilty. Anyone with access to a computer can find a person now, as long as the number is in the system (Google lets you opt out).

      I'm not singling out Google as particularly evil or scary; it's just that we were talking about Google here in this vote. And Google is among the best search services around. I like Google. I even used Google Earth to find the building I live in - it's kind of fun. Hey, I live right here! And I see that a neighboring building has a swimming pool on the roof. Maybe I can make friends with the doorman or something, and get in...

        The reverse indexes were usually quite expensive. We had them in the lawfirm I worked in years ago. You could get a guy's telephone number, look it up, and then call his neighbors, do whatever.

        The difference between this service and Google is simply availablilty. Anyone with access to a computer can find a person now, as long as the number is in the system (Google lets you opt out).

        I've yet to see a local library that didn't have one of the criscross directories. Having google provide it makes it slightly easier to obtain.

        The thing is, a lot of the information that the government collects and considers public record is not information that it has any business collecting. The same goes for most corporations.

Re^2: What will Google do next?
by december (Pilgrim) on Apr 12, 2006 at 03:11 UTC

    They could also do that in the Dark Ages, allbeit in a much more painful way... ;)

    I feel that's more a complaint about governments than about technology (checking... you seem to live in the US, that clears things up). Governments always have, always had and always will have ways to find out information. That's what power does.

    There is no stopping the future, the question is not even boolean, for that matter. The real question is how the balance will go between the positive versus the negative uses of technology.

    People from all walks of life have now access to more knowledge than ever dreamt of by kings and fascist governments. There are, for instance, free encyclopedia's, operating systems and other software that enable people to use them and study them -- this site is one of them. There are more sources of news than ever before -- anything that happens around the world can be found out in mere minutes -- and it is more likely that those who care can come up with a rather unbiased view from all these sources.

    In my opinion, the most important question is if people will learn to benefit more from the good sides of having so much information available, and to select wisely and truthfully from all that data, than end up misusing or misinterpreting it -- no matter how relative some of these terms often are. There will always be abusers, in any way, in any time, of any system.

    In the end, it all comes down to whether or not you have faith in humanity.

    The internet, Google and search engines are about as relevant to 'good' and 'evil' as the first time someone melted metal and made a purposeful object out of it (feel free to fill in any other lame comparison). Is a metal 'good' or 'evil'?

    Google will do things that are generally liked, and most probably, also things that are generally disliked... Because they can. That's human nature. Just on a big, $500 billion scale. :)

      In the end, it all comes down to whether or not you have faith in humanity.

      Well, in the past century we had the worst acts of genocide ever committed, millions of people slaughtered for the crime of being who they were. In many of these atrocities, those with power to stop it allowed it to go on without much more than official disapproval. We began this century with some folks thinking it would be a great idea to fly some jets into buildings, killing unarmed and helpless people; and the US responded by killing a bunch of unarmed and helpless people, as well as the occasional armed soldier. Those were probably "collateral damage". And the genocides and famines continue without much interference from anyone.

      Without wishing to sound in any way pessimistic, there are times when my faith in humanity is not rock solid.

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