The way technology is rapidly advancing and so easily available to the common man is scary.
I remember watching a Will Smith / Gene Hackman movie (“Enemy of the State”) where US Govt “security/spy” sattelites are used to track down Will Smith in Real Time. Of course, the scenario looks far fetched, one never really believes the movies, and everything depicted there is either categorized by our brains as either fantasy or computer effects.
We tend to have an ostrich attitude when something like this, does really happen and comes out in the open. I am sure the Indian Government was caught napping too when Google Earth mapped out the entire continent, President House, the Parliament, Airports, sensitive military installations et al. You name it and it was already there.
A person had to just diligently sit and surf, to zero in on a destination.
Of course everybody knows about google earth and how cool it is. Nobody really cares if the “President house” is marked up on the map. Would you? I think you would'nt, but I bet you would care if your home was marked up on the map along with your phone number, and heaven forbid, you happened to be a girl. And this exactly is what is happening on Wikimapia , yes Wikimapia and not Wikipedia. Initially, I was amused to find innumerable “tags” and “descriptions” which were harmless as follows
Haranjit Arora's house in
Naseem Bhai's Chawri Bazaar HangOut
Achha Naala
shilpi lives here..ooooh
But then slowly the reaction turned to an alarming one, once I realized people were using this nifty tool to mark addresses of girls coupled with phone numbers in some cases. One can only imagine the nightmare and harassment these girls must be facing if such information is freely available under the public domain.
I am sure the author had good intentions when he developed this tool but as in most cases the fault is not in the technology but how it is being used or misused. On one end of spectrum fire can be used to warm a person, cook food, give light OR napalmed to clear flora, fauna and of course humans.
In the end, I would suggest that you have a look at wikimapia, play around with it and have fun, mark the places which are of real importance, explore the world and places where you have been to, marvel at the technology like I do, but then come back and check your own home or residence and delete any personal information if some stalker or vindictive soul has put up. And you have to repeat the process again and again and again……because now, not only is big brother watching you, but then, so is the whole world.
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