Google Health, Google Walking Directions; privacy issues in the air?
Posted by Manuela Barreto @ August 6th, 2008 in Google Applications
As we know, a couple weeks back, Google released ‘walking directions’ as part of their Google Maps feature options.
If you’re keen to taking random strolls down some unknown street, perhaps some new ‘pedestrian friendly’ town you happen to be visiting for the weekend, or want to enjoy the beautifully HOT weather that has come to us this year, or basically move within a radius of not more than 10km, Google walking directions is your thing.
I can’t even tell you how glad I am for this. Even though I strangely enjoy getting lost in places I don’t know cause I’m a strong believer that the more you get lost; the better you get to know a place,- this new feature is definitely a time-saver.
BUT, lately, it has become somewhat of a private issue for some. Concerns have been raised that Google is being a bit reckless in terms of providing high precision information, like walking directions down your street sidewalk. This takes us back to the couple from Pittsburgh who sued Google for trespassing ‘Private Road’ territory using Street View, which provides users with a 360-degree photo of the place intended for visit.
Same thing goes for Google Health. This is also a fairly new feature where people can keep track of their health information by importing health reports, gathering all medical related data and saving it all in one safe place. Safe? People are beginning to think twice about this whole ’sharing their world’ ideology on the Web, in particularly Google.
Some may call it paranoia, for others it’s convenient, others just can’t be bothered with it. What do you think?
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Comments
Paolo
August 6th, 2008
I think that people ovethink privacy too much and they are most of the time incotherent at least if not self- contradictory when they talk about it. They are happy to give information away, practically everytime, but they are not happy for people to use them. So question is, why did they give information away in the first place? Also I would not rely on a private company either in dealing with private information. So once again, why are they giving them away to somebody else? That’s the question!
Peter
August 6th, 2008
I can understand that Google ‘walking’ down a private road obviously infringes on people privacy, but walking down ‘my’ sidewalk…doesn’t really make a difference to me, as you or me or anyone can do that anyway. I think that the transparency and openness of the internet will lead to more private information being available…..but i guess thats comes with having a tool like the internet at our disposal. And true…many of these appliances (i.e. Google Health) don’t force or coerce information out of people. I agree with Paolo that it is the responsibility of people to be more careful of their info rather then the responsibility of Google.
m.barreto
August 7th, 2008
Hey guys,
I would say it goes both ways. On one hand, you’ve got those who live, breath, eat and walk Google, so it’s up to these individuals to decide how far they take it..then there’s the not so assiduous internet users, who might be a bit more naive about the ways of the Web; Voilà! these are the victims, I think. It is best to avoid digging too deep specially when something is unfamiliar to you.
But guys, Google is kinda scary, you’ve got to admit it, they know waaaay too much.
Peter
August 7th, 2008
Not as much as your insurance provider…
Peter
August 7th, 2008
ps. visit http://hublog.hubmed.org/archives/000942.html
valrossie
August 21st, 2008
Travelhow, where, and how often we do ithas major implications for the health of individuals and of the population.1 Transport activities impact on health, both negatively and positively; and transport policies are now a key determinant of health. Health has to be included on the transport policy agenda if gains are to be achieved, and health professionals have a key role in this. In this article on the implications of transport policies, I draw on an extensive review to which many experts contributed and which will soon be published as a book by the World Health Organisation. I also draw on the preparatory work for the charter on transport, environment, and health2 which was adopted at the ministerial conference on environment and health held in London this week.
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valrossie
Internet marketing/a>
Billigflug
November 26th, 2008
“walking down ‘my’ sidewalk…doesn’t really make a difference to me”
it doesn’t make a difference to me too. We should help google to better its features or provide new services in the condition that it respects its customers’s the right to privacy .