Googleearth

Has the development of Google Earth and similar intrusive geolocation technologies created a need for an international tort of information trespass? If so, how should this be expressed in an international convention and what would be the appropriate remedies? If not, how should this issue be addressed?’
We live in a world of information, the advances and expansion of the Internet, as well as theinfrastructure that permits the flow of data, allow us to have any kind of information available at all times, whether it’s for entertainment, education, communications or work. Technologies are changing behavior patterns, customs, services, commerce and at some points even our own identities. Personal information is available for everyone with internet access. A few days ago, my father waslooking for an address in the web on “Google Maps”. Just out of curiosity he typed the address where he used to live in a small town in the United States of America many decades ago, not only did he found it, but he was able to zoom in until he had a 360° photo view of the street where he use to live. He could recognize the house entrance, the vegetation in the area, and even a stream that runsparallel to the main road, he was truly amazed. It is really astonishing the details shown with the maximum zoom of the program, almost anywhere in the globe. Going beyond that, a local address is not the only personal information you can find in the web. it’s also incredible how a simple internet page as http://www.find-ip-address.org/ could determine my ip address, my internet provider, thecountry, city and time zone where I live. Even more impressive was that it gave my operating system, the system’s language I use and even the internet pages that I’ve had seen in that session. These are just sheer examples of how personal information is available to anyone. Now, we have to wonder what happens at bigger scales where States are involved? Or when sensible information is shared?
Havingunrestrictive access to any kind of information can produce concern or even paranoia, but we should determine if it’s a result of inexperience, ignorance or a well-founded fear. New technologies and their application in telecommunications are growing at an unprecedented rate creating a world without borders, especially with the Internet and uses of Satellites. Activities, applications, software ofthese types of technologies develop in a faster rate than the existing regulatory rules and laws are even capable of conceiving. .
The use of technology creates new ways of interactions giving us access to people, places, and services through our computers and similar digital devices, such as cell phones. These new situations carry with them significant legal rights and obligations, most ofthem are not properly regulated or not regulated at all.
Communications have become a world’s necessity, particularly because they allow us to exchange information swiftly and massively, and information equals knowledge, and in words of Sir Francis Bacon “knowledge is power”. Therefore, nowadays it’s becoming more important to reflect on the ways this information is created, broadcast and how itshould be protected. Moreover, new technology is being developed day by day creating even newer situations that could need regulation, hence the difficulty of national and international legislators to propose statutory rights and obligations for the issues of privacy and information trespass raised by the use of these new developing technologies, most of them we can’t even begin to imagine, evenless predict.
This study will try to reach a conclusion about the necessity or not of an international statutory law to regulate these kinds of technology, particularly the information broadcasted through those means and the exploitation of that information. To reach that conclusion, it’s needed to know the basics on how these technologies work and try to envision the possible conflicts that...