Spy-satellite-grade images could soon become available to everyone
my that is a very high quality image than what we already have, putting some concerns aside it would be helpful as I remember trying to map again where someone in my family’s place was and the satellite images weren’t exactly up to snuff to do so, this could help with that.
Then again it is both a blessing and a curse I guess.
1 Like
It’s not like Google Maps will just have the quality from above. You will still likely have to pay hundreds/thousands/tens-of-thousand of bucks to get this high-quality, but a democratization nonetheless.
I think it is pretty scary for privacy, as spying on anyone become super easy.
That being said, yes it has some practical and good implications. One of them being journalism, we have already seen with Maxar how useful satellites images can be to asses war damages whether in Gaza or Ukraine.
Honestly, I think this is good news. The technology clearly already exists, so it’s better it is democratised so that we can better understand it.
As the last paragraph in the article says, make you wonder what tech the military has…
You can bet they have something that can see the hairs on your nose if you sleep under the sky.
I think they also have cloud piercing imaging.
All of the above are speculation though and likely within the realm of achievability.
Interesting developments, but I don’t see how this’ll be used for targeted or mass surveillance of individuals (as opposed to state or corporate espionage)? It can’t look through a roof, and what it can see must be relatively static for a long time (it can only take an image couple times per day) and relatively big (10cm per pixel). Using a drone or the many public cameras for surveillance seems much more practical to me.
Satellite imagery & AI was already used in France to find all people who didn’t ask for a permit to build a swimming people.
The main issue I see is not that it would dramatically increase the scale of surveillance, but that it will broaden the scope of place that can be surveilled. This truly means your home isn’t private sphere. This also mean no matter your jurisdiction, other states will spy on you as well.
Of course, it depends on cost factors, but a bit scary still.
1 Like