Is Google Maps a Threat to Indvidual Privacy?

Privacy groups are keeping a watchful eye on Google as it posts pictures of thousands of homes on their Street View website which is accessed through Google Maps. While being able to drop in to 360 degree photographic view Times Square from a map on their site is pretty cool, many privacy groups have expressed concern about what this may mean to individual privacy. Since the Street View project started Google has been outfitting cars with special cameras and sending them to drive the streets of the world snapping pictures of everything in their path, and everything along side of it.
The cause for concern is that someone may unknowingly be photographed in a compromising position (no more mowing the front yard in the nude for me), or that a criminal may use the information to case you home before he breaks in. For the first concern, if you're doing something you shouldn't; don't do it in public dummy! Law enforcement in many parts of the world already has a much better system of cameras feeding real-time data to "the man". Of course that's a whole other story. As for the crooks casing you place, that seems like a valid concern. Nothing is seen in the photographs online that couldn't be seen from the street, but at least before Google Streets the bad guys had to go out and look around in person.
Currently the database of photographs boasts 51 cities in the US as well as parts of Italy and France. Britain and Australia are on the way later this year. The sole purpose of the campaign is to capture pictures of streets and landmarks, not the people in them, however you just can't take a picture of a busy street and not expect to catch a glimpse of a person or a car license plate. To allay concerns that someone in a photo may be identified or a license lumber tracked down, Google has created a system that blurs most recognizable faces and license plates.
Yes, I said most. No automated system is perfect so Google allows users to report inappropriate images from within the application, and may request to have their pictures taken down. Though I think the "Report Inappropriate Image" link could have been more prominent it is easily located by clicking the "Help" link. Also what about the individuals that have been photographed and don't know to look at the website to see if they want their photos removed. After reviewing the photos available on the site I think they can add quite a bit of value for navigation, landmarks have always been easier to remember than street names. Also the photos a good enough quality to see the neighbors house and read some street signs, there was not enough detail to zoom in on any windows and see inside a house.
In all I think the risk to individuals privacy is minimal since the photos are low resolution and not real-time. The danger I see is in the precedent that this might set. Once everyone gets used to cameras everywhere, it will get easier to slip more intrusions into our private lives. I guess the best question to ask is, does the public have a reasonable expectation of privacy when in public. Does spying on the drug dealer on the corner openly selling his wares in full view place your privacy in danger or protect you from the bad guys? I won't tell you how to answer these questions because everyones limits are different. But I hope my rambling will cause you to pause for a moment to decide just where your limits do lie.

G8 Threatens Privacy!

Here are a couple of important (read: terrifying) tidbits that came out of the G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting held June 11-13, 2008.
The G8 is pushing for its member states to monitor Mobile and ISP traffic for copyrighted material to further a high level treaty called the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) that they are working on. So not only will your ISP be spying on you (in the interest of fighting piracy of course) but so will your cell phone company!
I do not condone piracy, but this seems a little too Orwellian to me. Next thing you know the governments could be strong arming service providers of all types to listen for “potential terrorists” engaging in suspicious or anti government talk. Hello!?!? You may as well use the Constitution for toilet paper!

Additionally the G8 wants to give airport customs officials the right to scan portable media players for copyrighted material. Giving customs officials the power to scan MP3 players, laptops and even mobile phones for illegally-obtained copyrighted material when passengers pass through borders seems ridiculous to me. Most likely these pirated items would have come from the internet and have absolutely NOTHING to do with a person physically flying to another country. Ok, you want to look in my luggage to find the 30 Madonna CDs I burned at home and I plan to sell in Bangkok, fine, but what the hell am I going to have on my laptop that I couldn’t download sitting in a Starbucks anywhere In the world.
Of course the owners of a copyright need protection but not at the expense of personal freedom. There HAS to be a better way than having some jackbooted thug digitally violate you in the interest of protecting some rich bastard’s profit margin!


Note: The G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting is a forum allowing the G8 (Japan, Italy, Canada, France, USA, UK, Russia, Germany) Ministers responsible for justice and home affairs, the EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, and the Secretary-General of the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO) to meet and discuss matters of common interest. From: http://www.g8jha2008.jp/eng/what.html

Sources
http://www.g8jha2008.jp/eng/what.html
http://www.switched.com/2008/07/20/airports-may-scan-for-illegal-downloads-on-mobile-devices/
http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/g8_acta_think_twice_before_you_share_protected_content.php

Managing cookies and temporary internet files

Some of the following information applies to Windows 9X/ME versions but is very similar to XP. I included it because there are a ton of users still using the older OS's. If you would like me to answer a specific question or cover something for a specific OS please write.

Surf Anonymously

Whenever you go online through an ISP the computers on the 'net that you connect to can see your IP Address. If someone wanted information about you they could go to your ISP to obtain it, of course they would theoretically have to have a legal right to the information and a search warrent, but who wants to take chances? There are a few ways to defeat this.

1. Use a proxy server such as Anonymizer .

2. Use a free ISP such as NetZero. You could give them an alias instead of your real info.

3. Use a prepaid ISP like prepaid phone cards you can get these at places like Staples, I haven't tried these but the one I looked at said you didn't have to register it.

If you choose one of the latter two options I suggest you still you a proxy! Be twice as safe!

Clear History

Internet Explorers History feature not only keeps track of what websites you've visited but also what folders and files you have accessed from you machine.

Open Internet Explorer, click the Tools Menu, and select Internet Options. On the General tab of the resulting window look for the History section, here you can select how many days to keep files in your History folder, there is also a button to clear you any files that are currently in you history folder. Installing Tweak UI (below) will allow you to automatically remove any history files when you log off.

Clear typed URL history

Any time you type a command in the Run dialogue box from the Start Menu, type an URL in Internet Explorer, or open a document, Windows logs it and will display it in the appropriate dialogue box / text area, whenever someone types in any part of the previously typed information. This can really save you time by making it necessary to type only a partial command or Url, and making recently opened documents readily available from the Start Menu. The downside is that anyone can see what documents you've opened lately, even if you thought you had them buried deep inside some obscure folder. Also they could open I.E. and see what Urls you've recently typed. I'm not sure how you can manually overcome this problem but there is great news. if you have Windows 98 then you already have a free application that will clear these items every time you log off of / shut down your computer. It's called TweakUI and here's what you do to use it.

Put your Windows 98 setup disk in your CDROM drive. Wait for a window to pop up, select Browse this CD, and another window will pop up. In this window double click on the Tools folder, next double click the Reskit folder, do the same for the Powertoy folder. Now look for a file named tweakui.inf, right click this file and select Install from the pop up menu. You are now ready to use your new program, go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, and double click on TweakUI, now you have a lot of options for customizing your Windows experience. The one we're most interested in here is on the Paranoia tab, where you can select to have TweakUI dump your history files including your Internet History.

Clear Cache

Go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and select Disc Cleanup. This will delete the files stored in your Cache folders, but not necesarilly your cookies, nor does it permanently remove the files. Frequently wype your hard drive to keep these files from being recovered.. You can get a program that will manage these for you or you can delete them manually.

The following instructions are for a typical Windows 98 installation, the location of your folders may vary, but this should get you close.

Open Start, Programs, Windows Explorer. In the left hand pane look for the Windows folder, click the plus sign (+) next to the folder to show it's contents. Now look for a folder called Temporary Internet Files, click the plus sign next to it. Inside this folder is one called Content.IE5 or something similar. Expand this folder and you will see several folders with random names such as 25ffssd6565w. Inside these randomly named folders are your cookies. Browse them and delete any files you don't want. Be careful though there mey be some cookies you want to keep.

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Cookies

Cookies are very small text files that are placed on your computer by many websites. There is much debate as to the value and risk of cookies. Cookies many times contain personal information that you have entered at websites, this information can usually only be read by the site that places it on your machine. However some sites use a seperate company to generate and monitor their cookies and this does pose a security risk, because conceivably your information from one site could get compiled with information from a nother site, thus elliminating anonymity.

There are a few things you can do.

1. You can disable cookies all together, completely removing any risk from cookies. The downside of this is many websites won't let you in if you disable cookies.

2. Use cookie managing software. There are many programs available on the web, the free ones usually end up making you look at adds or send you commercial emails.

3. Manage your own cookies.

Open Windows Explorer, go to Windows/Cookies and delete any cookies you want. Be careful though not to delete any cookies you want to keep. Be sure to empty your Recycle Bin, and wype your hard drive when you're done.

4. Use a proxy server such as Anonymizer. A proxy server acts as a buffer between the web and your ISP to fool website into thinking that you are surfing from a different server and mask your IP address. The better proxys also store your cookies on their hard drives for you and let you set different settings for what information you want to give to which sites. You may have to pay for the more advanced features

social security number risk

Maybe it's just me but I would think with all the media coverage about the risk to peoples' personal information and identity theft, and the laws requiring due diligence in protecting your clients information that agencies and businesses would start taking greater care.
Here's an example; I saw a news report a few years ago about doctors and hospitals carelessly throwing old medical records in the trash, and not long after shredding of outdated or sensitive documents became much less a good idea and more a necessity!

Now here is my specific gripe. Have you ever noticed those handy little baskets full of mail at the receptionist's desk at the doctor's office, or your lawyer's? I mean come on!!! You would think the medical profession would have learned their lesson by now, and if you can't trust your ATTORNEY, of all people, with your information the world is in sad shape. After I noticed this trend I really started paying close attention. This practice is very commonplace, at least in the area where I live. Even better, not only is the mail, full of your personal and possibly damaging information, sitting on the front counter in easy reach of anyone off the street, but (no exaggeration) 90% of the time the was no one any where near the desk to even keep an eye on it!

At my local physician's office that nifty little mail basket sits on a counter full of fliers for patients to take home. Just the other day I sat and watched a seedy looking fellow browse through the pamphlets for a good 15 minutes. And NO ONE NOTICED! Why would they? He was just browsing through the material that the office, in all their wisdom, left for him to look at. The fact that he could have just as easily picked up the 3 inch stack of outgoing mail and walked off with it to examine at his leisure must have never crossed anyone's mind!

Tell me, am I just being paranoid? Or does somebody need a little training, and maybe an ass kicking!

One more gripe, this one just happened today! Okay it actually starts yesterday. I was at the county/state run employment agency and signing up for an orientation class. The guy handed me a sheet of paper and asked me to write my name and social. Above my name was at least five other names and socials. I mean this guy had filled my information in on at least 5 other forms on his PC, I guess he couldn't operate a pen. Or maybe he was just being nice and trying to give me a little extra help stealing someone else's identity. No harm done though, I guess he's such a good judge of character that he could just tell what an honest guy I am. My poor wife had to listen to me rant about this for 30 minutes.

Icing on the Cake
Today I went in for the aforementioned orientation meeting. This time another guy had that familiar little piece of paper so he could call role. No big deal I am sure he was authorized to have everyone social security numbers for other aspects of his job. However, the first part of the meeting was going to be a 15 min video that he'd already sat through hundreds of times so understandably he left the room while we watched it. The only problem was that he decided to leave that inconspicuous paper lying on a table right in front of one of the other meeting attendees. I mean it was like he sat it down FOR him to look at. Would it have killed him to take it out of the room with him, or at least put it up on top of the TV. For Pete's sake!!! This is a Government agency! No wonder bureaucrats have such a bad rap. I haven't decided yet if I should write an article for the newspaper, make a suggestion at that office, or call my friggin' congressman. Come on folks let me hear from you, I'm dying to know if I'm just being a paranoid nutball or what.