Monday, November 9, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Week 7 - Geospatial Blog
Geospatial Data and Privacy Concerns
With the release of satellite images to the public and the use of GPS, we have seen a number of interesting and informational applications that is changing the way Americans and the world view their physical space. I personally use these applications at least 5 times a week. Here are some examples:
Yahoo Maps: I can find out where I need to go and the use of the Hybrid feature combines satellite imagery with a normal map.
Google Earth: With this software, I can map out an address and also see a ground level view of the actual location. This is extremely handy when trying to visualize what the location looks like.
A number of other applications use the information gathered from Google Earth and overlay other information on top of it. For instance, every Christmas our whole family downloads NORAD’s Santa tracker in order to find out where he is. Also, we have family member who left for a cruise on Saturday and we can track their progress. We can also see if their flight is on time when they come home and we can track it in the air as well.
With all of the advantages of having this kind of information, I have never really considered how the use of satellite imagery would affect my personal security and privacy. I have always been a very open person. I believe in openness and honesty and that if you are a good person you will lead a good life. Therefore, I never have to be concerned about “Big Brother” and feeling like my privacy is being invaded. We are under surveillance all the time, whether it is computers storing our credit card information, ATM cameras recording us every time we make a withdrawal, our employers recording and monitoring our online activity, etc… We live in a hyper connected world and with that comes some loss of freedom. By streamlining our daily lives, we invariably expose ourselves to being tracked. By paying for things with credit, we create a trail. By accessing information over the internet, we can be monitored a number of different ways. We see pop-ups and emails for products that we actually might use, we think it was fortuitous but really it is different websites analyzing what you are looking at and making suggestions. I had this realization when I recently signed up for a Facebook account. All of the sudden it was suggesting friends for me and it was for the most part right on. Now I have been able to contact friends from a long time ago.
Also, we use this information where I work and it saves American lives. I work for a defense contractor and having satellite imagery and GPS enables our products to give accurate and reliable information to soldiers that are in harm’s way as well as Homeland Defense. When I think of all of the advantages of having this information available, I think they outweigh my paranoia about privacy issues. I think any information is dangerous depending on how you want to use it.
With the release of satellite images to the public and the use of GPS, we have seen a number of interesting and informational applications that is changing the way Americans and the world view their physical space. I personally use these applications at least 5 times a week. Here are some examples:
Yahoo Maps: I can find out where I need to go and the use of the Hybrid feature combines satellite imagery with a normal map.
Google Earth: With this software, I can map out an address and also see a ground level view of the actual location. This is extremely handy when trying to visualize what the location looks like.
A number of other applications use the information gathered from Google Earth and overlay other information on top of it. For instance, every Christmas our whole family downloads NORAD’s Santa tracker in order to find out where he is. Also, we have family member who left for a cruise on Saturday and we can track their progress. We can also see if their flight is on time when they come home and we can track it in the air as well.
With all of the advantages of having this kind of information, I have never really considered how the use of satellite imagery would affect my personal security and privacy. I have always been a very open person. I believe in openness and honesty and that if you are a good person you will lead a good life. Therefore, I never have to be concerned about “Big Brother” and feeling like my privacy is being invaded. We are under surveillance all the time, whether it is computers storing our credit card information, ATM cameras recording us every time we make a withdrawal, our employers recording and monitoring our online activity, etc… We live in a hyper connected world and with that comes some loss of freedom. By streamlining our daily lives, we invariably expose ourselves to being tracked. By paying for things with credit, we create a trail. By accessing information over the internet, we can be monitored a number of different ways. We see pop-ups and emails for products that we actually might use, we think it was fortuitous but really it is different websites analyzing what you are looking at and making suggestions. I had this realization when I recently signed up for a Facebook account. All of the sudden it was suggesting friends for me and it was for the most part right on. Now I have been able to contact friends from a long time ago.
Also, we use this information where I work and it saves American lives. I work for a defense contractor and having satellite imagery and GPS enables our products to give accurate and reliable information to soldiers that are in harm’s way as well as Homeland Defense. When I think of all of the advantages of having this information available, I think they outweigh my paranoia about privacy issues. I think any information is dangerous depending on how you want to use it.
Week 7 - Geospatial Applications
This is my home town.
This is my map of UMASS Lowell.
This is my home town with Weather and Traffic layers turned on.
This is a 3d Building map of Boston, MA.
This is a Flight Tracking map of flights around Chicago's Ohare airport.
This is a map of cruise ships around the Cayman Islands.
This is a map of the local weather in the Northeast.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)