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Town stops using Google Earth to spy on people's pools
In some cases, satellite imagery can be important evidence to protect public safety, but watching your swimming pool hardly seems like a reason for a town to get all Big Brother. What I find interesting about this decision isn't that the town very reasonably decided to stop a practice that probably cost them more in bad press than it gained them in pool fines and safety improvements, it's that they made a distinction between what any citizen can see on the internet and what any citizen can see by walking down a public street.
The debate isn't about pools, it's about the grey area between digital public information and public information in meatspace. That's not something that one New York town is going to resolve overnight, but Riverhead sure makes an interesting case study.
[via Switched]
Comments
8
Subscribe to commentsDoh!Sep 9th 2010 3:50PM
Why does downloadsquad post an article that has nothing to do with a download?
Lee MathewsSep 9th 2010 5:59PM
How do I shot web?
JordanSep 9th 2010 4:15PM
Google Earth isn't downloadable anymore? That's news to me.
kostyalevinSep 9th 2010 4:24PM
I know this is a a non-download topic, but it brought a flashback to an article in the NY Times about a similar story. In Athens, Greece there are 324 pools registered. Actual number observed through Google Earth: 16,974.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/world/europe/02evasion.html?_r=1
I don't see what's so bad about doing something like that. Maybe to play nice officials could just ask for the permit fees instead of handing out fines.
JoeySep 10th 2010 2:23AM
I guess they'll start using Google Street View instead...
nospamSep 10th 2010 10:15AM
Actually, the reason for the permits is that the pool needs to be installed with certain safety standards, such as surrounding fences, secure decks, etc, to keep people from getting injured and to keep kids from straying in and drowning, and also to be sure that the pool is installed properly to, in the case of above ground pools, make sure it doesn't collapse and cause injury and property damage (flooding) or in the case of in-ground pools to make sure it doesn't collapse inward or leak and contaminate groundwater (LI's only water source is its below-ground aquifer). The permit says that the pool has been inspected and is safe and installed properly.
Being from LI, I've seen the results of shoddy work and badly installed pools, and have since enough stories of little kids accidentally drowning in unsecured pools, to believe these precautions necessary.
Brian!Sep 10th 2010 12:58PM
This is stupid. First for the city... google maps does not always have current pictures. Although, I suppose, someone might keep up their pool.
Then the people are stupid for complaining. Look residents of Riverhead, if you feel the need to break the law so badly, then CHANGE THE LAW. Instead of bitching about your law enforcement using modern public tools to catch law-breakers, either petition to remove the law or comply. It is your law after all. And your town. Your elected officials. WTF? Do you not understand the way government works in a democracy?
Seriously, I am soooooo glad I live on the other side of the US from Riverhead.
Apparently it is ok that people cause a possible heath hazard as long as you can't see it from the street. But oh my... if you can see it from the air then it can't be used in court? That city should hire a plane to fly over and they can take their own pictures. if you don't want to break your own laws, then change them - don't hide the pool. Sheesh.
I am against Big Brother type government, but this is a case of officials using blatantly available public tools to enforce the laws that they are hired to do so.
2late2dieSep 10th 2010 1:45PM
Can we please stop referring to the real world as "meatspace" - it's very creepy, like "cannibalism" creepy.