Google, Apple maps raise privacy concerns

A view of Times Square in New York, using Google street view.

/ Google

Updated 10:17 a.m. ET

(CBS New York) New York Senator Charles Schumer is raising new privacy questions as Internet giants Apple and Google announce plans to use ultra-powerful mapping technology.

Both Google and Apple are ready to use military-grade spy planes to update their maps of communities across the country.

The planes are powerful enough to be able to capture images as small as four inches, and could catch people inside their homes or in their backyards without their knowledge. That's what has Senator Schumer so worried.

"Barbequing or sunbathing in your backyard shouldn't be a public event. People should be free from the worry of some high-tech peeping Tom technology violating one's privacy when in your own home," Schumer said in a press release.

Schumer wants Apple and Google to let communities know when and where they'll be mapping, so people are aware. He is also asking them to blur photos of people automatically, and to give property owners the right to have their property mapped.

Schumer has written a letter to the CEOs of Google and Apple, Larry Page and Tim Cook respectively, detailing his concerns and requests to protect people from an invasion of privacy.

"We appreciate the Senator's concerns and we look forward to meeting with him to demonstrate how the imagery used to develop our 3D models is similar to what's already publicly available in 2D mapping products. We currently don't blur aerial imagery because the resolution isn't sharp enough for it to be a concern," a Google spokesperson told CBS News.

Apple did not immediately respond to CBS News' request for comment.

[NYGn]

Senator Schumer goes after Google for creating more accurate maps of already mapped terrain, while at the same time he does not condemn the continued proliferation of surveillance on the part of the NYC government and police.

You can't have it both ways, Senator. Either you agree that surveillance without express authorization of a court made against a specific place or specific person for a specific length of time, is illegal (whether conducted by a private or government entity), or you stop trying to raise your public profile by waving your hypocrisy at an easy target.

[TomMariner]

Senator Schumer is my representative and I appreciate everything he does for my state and my country. But I think the privacy concerns are misplaced. Even if it were the "up close and personal" Street View, they both have great value to many people. And, as with Street View, the planes will be making a circle way overhead once every couple of years, giving them a million in one chance of catching you.

If you want to prevent any privacy breach, then order every government agency, bank, store, etc. to immediately stop all video surveillance -- they are turned on 24 x 7 x 365. Hey how about "red light cameras" that are continuously filming everybody who goes under their traffic lights -- turn them off too -- that's not a million to one - it is every time you drive.

Stop with the knee-jerk reaction to "protect" us from every innovation, without considering if it has use or not. If the activist groups that want to dwell in caves don't want aerial photos, let them wear a hat.