Last year, there was a lot of coverage of Google striking a deal with satellite imagery company GeoEye to be able to use the high resolution images from its new GeoEye-1 satellite for their Google Earth and Maps products. The exclusive deal saw Google shift away from its partnership with rival DigitalGlobe, which provides many of Google’s rivals with imagery. Now, it looks like Google is back on board with a new DigitalGlobe satellite.
In a post today on its Lat Long Blog, Google reveals that DigitalGlobe has just launched their next-generation satellite dubbed WorldView-2 (no idea if this is to one-up GeoEye-1), and that the company will be getting new imagery from it. In the post, Google notes that it works “directly with several commercial satellite imaging providers.” Presumably, that means the deal with GeoEye is still in place, and now Google has found itself on yet another state-of-the-art satellite that peers down on all of us, gathering data.
Now, the government has regulations on just how closely Google and these companies can look (mostly because the government itself wants to be the only ones that can see really, really close up on us). But still, this is starting to get mildly creepy. I’d love to know how many satellites they are using up there to get their imagery.
It was recently revealed that Google was breaking away from TeleAtlas as the provider of its mapping data in the U.S. (though it is supposedly still using it for some other parts of the world). One reason they can do that is because they now have so much data from this satellite imagery (as well as their Street View imagery).
Is it tin hat time yet?
Watch the WorldView-2 launch below.
Good to hear that there are new satellites being made available. A few months ago everyone was concerned about the GPS satellites that were overdue for replacements.
They should bring in some Government Regulations otherwise this is a big security risk!
Yeah, because the government has shown much sensitivity to privacy.
There is no “privacy” anymore.
That’s what we get for all of the new tech. Sometimes there is bad with the good and vice versa…
I find this to be very exciting information, and I for one am glad for these advancements.
However, I am not worried about their ability to see us as we conduct our normal lives and would like to know what would be the issue with that?
Obviously in some Hollywood inspired worst case scenerio, you have someone with a massive grudge against you working for the company and they can track your every move. (in daylight, as long as your outdoors and have something distiguishable that makes you easy to identify. So unless you have a tattoo on your bald head and you never where a hat, then that theory is shot.)
sounds like a box-office smash to me.
If it was Microsoft the title of the piece would be:
“Microsoft Death star sattelite aiming on us” and why?
Information Gigoloogle is able to do whatever they want and everybody is cheerleading for them?
how stupid is this?
Well, this scenario actually already exist. You just need to have a google product on your smartphone, and they can track you back almost in realtime, I won’t even speak about using an Android smartphone or Google latitude, some car makers are planning to have google in their navigation system, so even when your smartphone is off, they’re watching you, when you are not sleeping, as soon as you get behind a computer, they get you.
+ They track you online already (Google analytics, cookies, etc…).
Well having all those informations from someone, Google knows, which pages you browse, when and where you open your emails, how you look, where you leave, which places you visit, they will come to know almost everything you do, soon they will have hands on your medical informations (I think the service is called google Healthcare or whatever), they know how your house and your street looks like…. and they have a bunch of other applications to track peoples. Now add to that, a satellite, and you’ve got “Public enemy from Hollywood”. Keep in mind Google has all this technology already, so it’s not really about knowing all this stuff about you, because they actually know a bunch about peoples…I once read a Joke: someone at google name something: we own you or you belong to us….well anyway something like that. I’m afraid a Hat won’t save us, it won’t even help us, I’m wondering hoe the EU will take this. We need some regulations here, sure regulations won’t help us keep our privacy, but it could prevent Google to play the evil with those informations.
When you use every single product from google, they own your privacy a bit more….OMG I’m using a bunch of google products. I guess they’ll soon say: YOUR LIFE BELONG TO US (sounds somehow familiar)
Hey Google, please DON’T BE EVIL WITH US. We’re already trapped in this google world.
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Does the move away from TeleAtlas have wider implications? Was licensing from TeleAtlas stopping Google from doing anything?
well they don’t have to pay TeleAtlas anymore, so that’s something.
there was a time when ford made its own wool for upholstery cause it did not like the stuff on the market….http://bit.ly/3boGzY
With Google Street View I cannot see how they can “look any closer in on us” without actually moving into our homes with cameras (and that’s next, I’m sure). Your point is?
well that’s true, but that isn’t under the same restriction as satellite imagery.
Didn’t realize there was a restriction on one but not the other. Thanks.
That’s beyond creepy. There needs to be stricter regulations on how much Google can see.
Anybody else think Google may soon have anti-trust issues regarding mapping? They seem to secure data through massive amounts of money. Not many can afford to drive cards around the US or strike image deals with satellites in space.
How close?
<- classic!
Google rocks! I think they have done a marvelous job with “Google Streets”, great job big G. Once again you seek to impress and that you did. Keep up the great work.
Yeah Google, Keep up spying us and owning our lives. Marvelous Job with “Google streets” from a technological view, yeah, they now know how your house and your street look like (they can better target you with ads, they can even tell you which trends in your region, so if there’s a swine flu coming there they know it months before you even heard of it or it breaks, they can estimate how much money you earn just base on your house location)…is it still rocks? combine with all the other stuff they know about you, they can probably find you faster than the CIA or whoever in the world. They are building great products, very innovative and I love those products, BUT I’m not comfortable with a company knowing more about me than a bunch (probably all) of my family members, base on my online and offline life. Please please please google, don’t be evil with us, don’t use our informations to serve us real time high targeted Ads, don’t keep our lives in your archives, don’t take ownership on datas we create with Googledocs (I have to read those ToS once again)….. If I could just get out of this trap, too bad Google own not just our lives but the internet as well.
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MG, 17 out of your last 25 posts (~70%) have been either on Google, Twitter, or Apple. Just saying, don’t get upset when people point you out.
It’s too late to carry this further, but I’m pretty sure the % of positive posts on these companies is also astoundingly high. Purposely posting this in an article that’s not positive, but just saying… don’t get upset when people call you out on hyping Google, Twitter, and Apple.
I agree with Jhon. Please don’t shatter our trust on the TechCrunch group. If a review is negative then post it. Don’t let money bend the truth.
But I am sure TC brings us the truth.
Next time you are looking up at the sky.. SMILE
Next time you look up at the sky…. SMILE
I was wondering whatever happened to the supposedly new pictures Google would have access to, since the area where I live is still blurry and the pictures are 20 years old at least from the buildings I can make out. I don’t think Google actually got anything out of the GeoEye deal. Not that Digital Globe is any better.
HAHA, choice selection of image. Next time you look up at the sky… vaporised.
Why is this such a bad thing?
There is no expectation of privacy when out in public, and if you are not captured by security cameras where the footage is archived for who knows how long, then you are captured by the satellites.
So what, I say.
Here’s a great example of Google being used for a great purpose…education.
http://www.stratalogica.com
let’s add a few facts to all that fiction.
1) WorldView-2 will at best have 46 cm resolution. That amounts to 1single pixel for a really fat person. How can that be an invasion of privacy?
2) Google has noting to do with that launch or the satellite. Their blog post congratulates their former partner DigitalGlobe for making more imagery available. Unfortunately not available to Google because of their exclusive deal with GeoEye.