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Big Brother's eye on Vancouver

by Jessica Tucker | January 30, 2010 at 08:12 am

445 views | 62 Recommendations | 11 comments

Two hazy figures are caught in a still photo beside a row of cut down trees. Does it look like these people are doing anything wrong? According to the City of Vancouver, the images caught by a one of Google’s Street View cameras that just happened to be in the area at the time when these trees were being removed, the big deal is that the camera also captured shots of the row of trees being allegedly, illegally cut down.

This has nothing to do with the illegal removal of trees in my eyes, what this is about is protection of our rights and freedoms... What will be next, pictures of a celebrity or a politician picking their nose or texting in a traffic cam or sidewalk camera?

As Google cameras zoom in on neighborhoods, streets, cities and rural areas all over the globe we try to be as welcoming to the new technology as possible. However, as more and more cases arise in which 'illegal' surveillance is used in law enforcement of things like city bylaws, people may also become more wary...

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Uwe Paschen

at 09:26 on January 30th, 2010

I do not like those Google cameras nor any other form of intrusion. Cameras in once house or business is as far enough and nothing else should be allowed. Are we going to jail every teen that carves his or her name into tree or writes on a wall?

Jessica Tucker

at 09:46 on January 30th, 2010

I worry for the day we start 'seeing' little machines flying around and peeping into our homes through our windows...

Uwe Paschen

at 09:52 on January 30th, 2010

I think that day is just around the corner if we do not stop it for going that far. It is time to reclaim Human rights and privacy rights.

Susan Marie Kovalinsky

at 13:46 on January 30th, 2010

Jessica: A few years back I read a disturbing book by a futurist. He told of technology coming soon, where little cameras, as small as a fly or a bee, could be sent to hover at your window, filming all. the only defense, he said, was to send your own back at them. Transparency will be pushed on us all.......