Drones, Google Earth and voyeurs

Try watching this video. It shows somebody launching a camera drone and controlling it using a joystick and virtual reality goggles. As the drone flies along it takes photographs and these are immediately integrated into Google Earth as overlays. There is more information here. The French company that has developed the system has a website which explains how the technology can be used for commercial purposes.



It also occurs to me that this has incredible snooping potential, and if it, or similar, applications became widespread it would pretty much kill outdoor privacy. You might say that Google Earth already offers aerial photographs of your backyard. So they do, but many are very poor resolution, and most are years out of date. What the French company is offering is real time aerial imaging. This is much more invasive.