Written by Jesse Carey
It was only a few weeks ago that Internet mega-company Google made
headlines for a new feature to its maps service called “Street View.” Privacy advocates and conspiracy theorists started an uproar, claiming the new feature, which allows users to see 360-degree, street-level photographs from a handful of cities around the country, was like the all-seeing eye of some sinister Big Brother. By the time the dust settled, and bloggers and tech watchers began to realize that Street View’s implications were relatively harmless (it wasn’t even close to real time; pictures would be removed upon request; it was only in a few scattered areas), another new development from Google—which holds promise to help social justice organizations and nonprofits with satellite technology—had been largely overshadowed in the media.
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