Google's Satellites Could Soon See Your Face from Space

[Renegade]

It's 1982 and a British band releases one of the heaviest albums produced to date.

The album starts with a short, heavy instrumental and then picks up the pace with an ominous foreshadowing...

Up here in space
I'm looking down on you
My laser's trace
Everything you do

You think you've private lives
Think nothing of the kind
There is no true escape
I'm watching all the time

...

Always in focus
You can't feel my stare
I zoom into you
You don't know I'm there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMVV_HsHcX0

Well, apparently zoom levels are about ready to include your face. From orbit.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/googles-satellites-could-soon-see-your-face-from-space

Google's Satellites Could Soon See Your Face from Space

Google will soon have an unprecedented ability to spy on you from space. Theoretically, at least. How?

Two months ago, after much lobbying by the biggest satellite company in North America, DigitalGlobe, the US government relaxed restrictions to allow for commercially available satellite imagery up to 25 cm resolution—twice as detailed as the previous limit of 50 cm.

Now, the first commercial satellite set to capture these high-res images, DigitalGlobe's Worldview-3, will launch this Wednesday. Six months after that, private businesses willing to fork over the money will be able to get their hands on hyper-detailed photos and videos of the globe.

That, of course, includes Google.

Google—along with Microsoft, NASA, and numerous US federal agencies such as National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which played a pivotal role in the seizure of Osama Bin Laden—is a regular DigitalGlobe customer. It signed a multiyear imagery contract with the colossus satellite company in February to use satellite imagery for apps like Google Earth, Maps, and Street View.

...

The satellite behemoth is now making a push to relax the rules even further, down to 10 cm resolution, about the height of an iPhone 4.

DigitalGlobe currently has five birds in the sky, and one, GeoEye-1, has the ability to capture images at 41 centimeters. The company lobbied hard to loosen restrictions to 25 centimeters so that it could compete with foreign firms that will be blasting their own satellites into orbit soon...

But, the really good quote from the article... the one that will have you in rolling on the floor laughing...

Google, for its part, claims it will use satellite image and video capabilities for the greater good.

More at the link.

It's pretty cool tech, but...

[rgdot]

My ugly face on google? 

[Renegade]

My ugly face on google? 

It's always good for when mom misses you!  Y'know... for the greater good of moms everywhere!

[anandcoral]

DAMMIT!

Thought living on the 30th floor was very private and I could do 'every cool things' on the open terrace.
Now I am more nearer to the lens ! Better live underground.

Regards

Anand

[Stoic Joker]

DAMMIT!

Thought living on the 30th floor was very private and I could do 'every cool things' on the open terrace.
Now I am more nearer to the lens ! Better live underground.

That won't help either, they'll just switch to thermals or something. Personally I say take up nude sunbathing and put up a sign that says "Kiss Me' that points to your ass. That's my plan for the weekend.

Hay, if they really want to be that nosey...Then I say they should be emotionally scarred for their efforts too!

[MilesAhead]

They say most of space is empty.  But I expect soon a couple of these will collide over South Beach. 

[Renegade]

That won't help either, they'll just switch to thermals or something. Personally I say take up nude sunbathing and put up a sign that says "Kiss Me' that points to your ass. That's my plan for the weekend.

Hay, if they really want to be that nosey...Then I say they should be emotionally scarred for their efforts too!

They say most of space is empty.  But I expect soon a couple of these will collide over South Beach. 

Nude beach anyone?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Gunnison
+Beach+(Nude+Beach)/@40.4600165,-73.9893911,209m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!1m2!2m1!1snude+beach!3m1!1s0x0:
0x377ab7ade01bddb6

[CWuestefeld]

This is just silly. The resolution is roughly the size of your face, which means that in the resulting image, it'll be represented by a single pixel. It won't be possible to recognize who is who, or even if you're wearing clothes or not.

[Renegade]

This is just silly. The resolution is roughly the size of your face, which means that in the resulting image, it'll be represented by a single pixel. It won't be possible to recognize who is who, or even if you're wearing clothes or not.

I don't think that you're looking at the "big picture".

Combine that with mobile phone "location services" and you have identities pretty much guaranteed.

This is just 1 aspect of the total surveillance system.

[MilesAhead]

This is just silly. The resolution is roughly the size of your face, which means that in the resulting image, it'll be represented by a single pixel. It won't be possible to recognize who is who, or even if you're wearing clothes or not.

To paraphrase Yogi Bera "I don't know if they were men or women.[referring to streakers at a ball game]  They were wearing bags over their heads."