The online world is sometimes perceived to be among our own hiding quarters. It is one of those world where, traditionally, our personal world is held different and separate. While many strangers can check out our profiles in social networking sites, the strangers who see us across the street cannot see our online profiles.
Or so we thought.
Earlier last month, Google launched a program, named Goggles, that allows a mobile phone user to surf and search the web using pictures instead of text. For example, if you will focus your camera and take a picture of a certain plant, the Google database will search for pictures with similar features and provide links that will direct users to relevant information. Other potential uses may perhaps include recognizing landmarks or even bottles of wine.
What was controversial here, however, is its potential to allow mobile phone users to use the service in order to know more about a random stranger on the street caught on cam. Using the same idea, what you only have to do then is to get a picture of someone and let Goggles do the searching. It's potentially a very good stalking tool.
I won't be surprised if this is something that anyone will get uneasy about. The hiding places get fewer and fewer. Many people establish their online presence in the first place.
Now, Google has affirmed that it had suspended this kind of use until further investigation into the implications of such a service in the market.
I know that sometimes privacy is really compensated due to advancements in technology, but this particular service might just prove to be too much. There won't be a sense of privacy anymore if this pushes through. All our lives suddenly become like open books, whose pages can be opened immediately after taking a sample picture and searching via Goggles.
The initial purpose is innovative, however. I just hope that Google can do something around this privacy issue.
