Hum… I was on my way back from work on Montreal’s Sherbrooke Street tonight when I spotted something in the oncoming traffic that most definitely looked like a multi-lens, 3D capture camera mounted on a standard black car.
Difficult to miss it, perched 4 feet above the car’s roof and right at eye level for me in the bus.
Knowing that Immersive Media, the company handling most (but not all) of Google’s Sreet View image capture, is from Calgary, I wasn’t exactly surprised. But it definitely got me curious.
Well, it turns out that the bolts of controversy coming from the States have been duly noted by our government and its privacy watchdog. See also: Canada to Google Street View: “Car!”.
Ms. Stoddart’s letters to Google and Immersive are available online.
On my end, I’m equally interested in both parties’ perspectives.
- As an individual and a Canadian, I do enjoy my privacy.
- As a geek and having lived in many places, I do want the technology.
Finding an appropriate compromise is the name of the game.
Update: I guessed I had somehow missed the buzz on the always excellent Montreal Tech Watch. That’s definitely the car (see picture). I hadn’t seen the side logo from the bus. Oooooh. Aaaah.
tekArtist 