The development of satellites, combined with improvements in the Internet, have made aerial photos a part of our lives in ways that, even five years ago, most of us would never have thought about. Just think about it. Say that you are looking for directions to visit your friend in the next town over. Not only can you have Mapquest, or Yahoo Maps print you up directions in a flash, but you can have those directions integrated with aerial photos online, showing you a picture of every street that you have to go down, every step of the way. There really is no better sign of the march of technology than the way that we can see anywhere in the world in an instant through the use of aerial photos.

In addition to all of the pictures of cities available, there are also aerial photos which can show you all of the wonders of nature through use of your computer. You can tour the grand canyon from the air, or look at the top of Mt. Everest. And, although not all of the aerial photos are live, some of them are. For example, during major weather events, there are often aerial photos continuously updated to help meteorologists keep track of them, photos that you yourself can access. I have watched many aerial photos of hurricanes, observing the changes that they underwent and hoping that they stayed far away from heavily urban areas.

Of course, all of this aerial photography has a down side, one which you yourself have already been thinking about. This one problem is on everyone’s lips all the time nowadays: the problem of diminishing  privacy. If someone can see aerial photos of your house now, what is to stop them from tracking what you do, many wonder. Can the government use its aerial photos to spy on ordinary citizens, others ask. Although the satellite photos that most of us are familiar with are not all that good, or all that frequently updated (many of the ones on Google Earth are from years ago), there is still cause for concern. After all, if these aerial photos are from several years ago, surely there are better ones by now. Furthermore, if these are the satellite pictures that the government is choosing to share with us, it makes you wonder about the ones that it is not showing, and how much more they reveal.

Tags: My Virtual School, Photography