Put the knife down and take a green herb, dude. (c) Ruffin Bailey 2001-2021

When importing pictures to Picasa from my iPod touch today, I was surprised to find that many had little Google Maps pushpins, suggesting they were geolocated. You can make them out on the top and bottom pictures in the screenshot, above. Now there's no GPS in an iPod touch nor does it take in a cellular signal, so the amazing accuracy -- at a recent convention, the pushpin moved around the map revealing almost exactly where each picture I took was taken inside of the building -- might come as a shock.

Now I've heard of Skyhook before (here's an article from CNET back in 2005). Apparently, much like Google's cars have run around taking pictures of everyone's back yard, Skyhook drove around taking down MAC addresses and other info from everyone's WiFi routers.

That's neat, I guess. It's certainly a creative, ingenious idea. On the level of problem solving, I'm very impressed.

Why is this a problem? Well, there are two ways, I believe. First, parents might not want emailed pictures of their kids to include, say, the precise location of their kids' favorite ice cream shop, or friend's house, or park, or school. It's not like any of this is a huge issue to figure out, but right now stalking a stranger in a picture takes some work. Geolocation lowers the sleuthing bar to installing Picasa (or any other geoaware pic app) and clicking a tab. I like my [functional] anonymity.

Secondly, and this one is more theoretical, I believe, though it's the cause for the first -- I don't want to be responsible for helping not just Skyhook, but also stalkers or even necessarily every authority from finding people who happened to take a picture of themselves doing something near my home router. If a parent takes a kid on a bike near my house, I'd rather be asked if the camera's makers can use my router info to geolocate before the stamp hits the picture. My home might be relatively stationary (though there are funny stories about routers moving from, say, the US to the UK and producing some interesting geolocation stamps), but there's really not too much difference between using it and, say, people's proximity to my cell phone. I'm not sure I want this information out there in the ether without my consent, and I sure as heck haven't been asked.

So while I'm impressed with the problem solved, with regards to privacy, I'm less so. You could say that it's an implementation issue. Why geolocating images from my iPod is the default is Apple's fault, not Skyhook's. But again, there are two dancers here. As if the eye in the sky aerial imagery of the earth isn't bad enough, metadata telling folks exactly where they are using my data isn't cool either. Without Skyhook mining my router -- and yours, and your local university's, and Starbucks', and the local library's, etc -- this isn't an issue.

Who said that was okay, and who should have been inserting themselves in 2005 to say, "You need to ask us first"?

Labels: ipod, picasa, pictures, privacy

Right after releasing Chrome, Google goes and updates ~~iPhoto~~ Picasa too:

Today, we're rolling out major technology upgrades to both Picasa and Picasa Web Albums. As you might have guessed, these are largely focused on how we share and enjoy our photos with others.

I used to enjoying playing Civilization, a world domination game, too much. Every time you thought you had a certain civilization under control and you started edging your military a bit closer to their city, WHAM, all of a sudden military units started flooding out of the city like fire ants. You'd had no idea that while you were spending all your resources building up your military that they'd had the same idea. Lured in by the expectation of an easy assault, you now had to sheepishly slink away.

I have to think that Microsoft's IE 8 is feeling that a little, and that Apple's Safari on Windows is feeling this Civ feeling in a big way now. Heck, Google even took WebKit and did it better. Now, I wonder how much Picasa has gotten... It already performs one heck of a lot better than what's admittedly a one-generation obsolete version of iPhoto. Price is a bit better, too.

Hammurabi Jobs, you're done.

Speaking of Chrome, why doesn't ctrl-L blockquote in BlogThis!? I'm also surprised that Chrome doesn't have a menu bar, depending on previous training to, say, know how to search the Omnibar (Control-K) or print (Ctrl-P) or view downloads (Ctrl-J).

Labels: browsers, Google, picasa

title: Put the knife down and take a green herb, dude.	descrip: One feller's views on the state of everyday computer science & its application (and now, OTHER STUFF) who isn't rich enough to shell out for www.myfreakinfirst-andlast-name.com Using 89% of the same design the blog had in 2001.
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Sunday, January 30, 2011
Privacy issue? iPod touch geolocates pictures When importing pictures to Picasa from my iPod touch today, I was surprised to find that many had little Google Maps pushpins, suggesting they were geolocated. You can make them out on the top and bottom pictures in the screenshot, above. Now there's no GPS in an iPod touch nor does it take in a cellular signal, so the amazing accuracy -- at a recent convention, the pushpin moved around the map revealing almost exactly where each picture I took was taken inside of the building -- might come as a shock. Now I've heard of Skyhook before (here's an article from CNET back in 2005). Apparently, much like Google's cars have run around taking pictures of everyone's back yard, Skyhook drove around taking down MAC addresses and other info from everyone's WiFi routers. That's neat, I guess. It's certainly a creative, ingenious idea. On the level of problem solving, I'm very impressed. Why is this a problem? Well, there are two ways, I believe. First, parents might not want emailed pictures of their kids to include, say, the precise location of their kids' favorite ice cream shop, or friend's house, or park, or school. It's not like any of this is a huge issue to figure out, but right now stalking a stranger in a picture takes some work. Geolocation lowers the sleuthing bar to installing Picasa (or any other geoaware pic app) and clicking a tab. I like my [functional] anonymity. Secondly, and this one is more theoretical, I believe, though it's the cause for the first -- I don't want to be responsible for helping not just Skyhook, but also stalkers or even necessarily every authority from finding people who happened to take a picture of themselves doing something near my home router. If a parent takes a kid on a bike near my house, I'd rather be asked if the camera's makers can use my router info to geolocate before the stamp hits the picture. My home might be relatively stationary (though there are funny stories about routers moving from, say, the US to the UK and producing some interesting geolocation stamps), but there's really not too much difference between using it and, say, people's proximity to my cell phone. I'm not sure I want this information out there in the ether without my consent, and I sure as heck haven't been asked. So while I'm impressed with the problem solved, with regards to privacy, I'm less so. You could say that it's an implementation issue. Why geolocating images from my iPod is the default is Apple's fault, not Skyhook's. But again, there are two dancers here. As if the eye in the sky aerial imagery of the earth isn't bad enough, metadata telling folks exactly where they are using my data isn't cool either. Without Skyhook mining my router -- and yours, and your local university's, and Starbucks', and the local library's, etc -- this isn't an issue. Who said that was okay, and who should have been inserting themselves in 2005 to say, "You need to ask us first"? Labels: ipod, picasa, pictures, privacy posted by ruffin at 1/30/2011 02:20:00 PM

Tuesday, September 02, 2008
That Civ Feel: Google does it again Right after releasing Chrome, Google goes and updates ~~iPhoto~~ Picasa too: Today, we're rolling out major technology upgrades to both Picasa and Picasa Web Albums. As you might have guessed, these are largely focused on how we share and enjoy our photos with others. I used to enjoying playing Civilization, a world domination game, too much. Every time you thought you had a certain civilization under control and you started edging your military a bit closer to their city, WHAM, all of a sudden military units started flooding out of the city like fire ants. You'd had no idea that while you were spending all your resources building up your military that they'd had the same idea. Lured in by the expectation of an easy assault, you now had to sheepishly slink away. I have to think that Microsoft's IE 8 is feeling that a little, and that Apple's Safari on Windows is feeling this Civ feeling in a big way now. Heck, Google even took WebKit and did it better. Now, I wonder how much Picasa has gotten... It already performs one heck of a lot better than what's admittedly a one-generation obsolete version of iPhoto. Price is a bit better, too. Hammurabi Jobs, you're done. Speaking of Chrome, why doesn't ctrl-L blockquote in BlogThis!? I'm also surprised that Chrome doesn't have a menu bar, depending on previous training to, say, know how to search the Omnibar (Control-K) or print (Ctrl-P) or view downloads (Ctrl-J). Labels: browsers, Google, picasa posted by ruffin at 9/02/2008 09:30:00 PM

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