One of the most gorgeous venues for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics will be Whistler Ski Resort. Nestled in the Rockie Mountains, it is one of the world’s premier ski facilities and a place where the planet’s best skiers and snowboarders will gather. There have been extraordinary preparations in terms of security and surveillance to insure the safety of this ski venue.
Now there are concerns that the Google Street View product may be compromising privacy and security at this ski community:
“… While Canadians have been collecting bizarre and funny images from the online views of city streets since Google launched the application for 15 cities in Canada last week, others have been surprised by how close one can actually zoom in on a window or even view the backyard of a house.
For the folks at the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and at least one local activist, the seemingly nifty web tool raises some pretty big questions about privacy, security and just how pervasive Google is becoming in daily life.”
link: ‘Street View’ sparks privacy, security concerns
For years Google Street View has raised privacy concerns. The images of people and locations were put online without expressed permission. In some countries, there has been a debate as to whether Google was contravening the privacy laws of existing legislation. The privacy and security issues with Google’s Street View become magnified when it is contrasted with the efforts to safeguard this Olympic venue.
Catherine Forsythe
