WHY SHOULD YOU BE WORRIED ABOUT IT?

 

Though satellites aren’t looking specifically for you, they can still see you. They might photograph you only accidentally, but they do so without your consent or knowledge. There’s nothing preventing Google’s satellites from capturing an image of you on the day you locked yourself out of your apartment wearing only a ripped and stained pair of tighty whities.

Satellite reconnaissance, even when it’s not done by a covert organization, is inherently secret. There is no way for anyone except the operator of a satellite to know what it observes and when. Furthermore, while the capabilities of a civilian satellite can be easily discovered, the full capabilities of the hundreds of military satellites over our heads are secret. Foreign governments, friend and enemy alike, watch us for gaps in our defensive stance, flaws in our technology, or vulnerabilities in our infrastructure.

The accuracy and availability of modern satellite maps cuts both ways, too. Detailed maps can keep our combat troops safe and alive, but they can also offer freely available reconnaissance data to our enemies. Criminals and terrorists use civilian satellite imagery like that available from Google to scout a potential target or battlefield. Sensitive government installations are redacted from Google Maps for security, but your local commuter rail network and city hall are not.

Satellite photography can offer help to more mundane criminals as well. Recent images of your apartment from the air can show methods of ingress or valuable property otherwise not easily spotted from the street. Aerial maps can be used to plan escape routes through backyards and alleyways that will enable the evasion of pursuing police. Satellite imagery can capture people in compromising situations in an otherwise private backyard. Simply put, satellites make it possible for everyone in the world to see everything that goes on everywhere, all the time.