Your house is about to be photographed, eh?

I have a problem - I should be able to sue!

2 (9.5%)

I don't like it - but it's their right.

12 (57.1%)

No problem - I don't mind at all.

7 (33.3%)

Total Members Voted: 9

[AlexLibman]

From SlashDot.org -- Your House Is About To Be Photographed --

An anonymous reader writes:

"Photographers from a Canadian company are going house to house, shooting pictures of every house in America, in hopes of building a giant database that can be sold to banks, insurance companies, and appraisal firms. While this activity is legal (as long as the photographers don't trespass on private property to get their shots), there are obviously concerns about security and privacy.  Considering that an individual can be detained and questioned by the FBI for photographing a bridge in this country, why should this Canadian company get a free pass?  Tinfoil hat aside, something seems very, very fishy here."

From the Arizona Star article about the photographing of Tucson:

"'The [handout given to people who complain] made it sound like they're doing it for law enforcement, when in reality they're doing it for sales and marketing,' said [a City Council aide], who received several calls about the company."

A lot of Libertarians would say that privacy is not a right - if you don't wanna be photographed you should buy lots of land around your house and otherwise obstruct the view from outside.  As photographic equipment becomes more and more powerful (i.e. for photographing from a helicopter flying above legal altitude), existing methods of assuring privacy in one's backyard are starting to run thin, short of putting a one-way-mirror dome around your property.

[Bill Brasky]

one-way-mirror dome

Looks like a fun place to get laid.  Also a place to avoid while dosed. 

I can photograph anything I want without trespassing, and so can the filthy Canadians. 

[YixilTesiphon]

By exposing those parts of my house they can see to the rest of the world, I make it public.

[bakerbaker]

one-way-mirror dome

Looks like a fun place to get laid.  Also a place to avoid while dosed. 

as well as an odd place to take a crap.   

[lordmetroid]

If kings can create a ruckus to keep their privacy so can I!

[Bill Brasky]

one-way-mirror dome

Looks like a fun place to get laid.  Also a place to avoid while dosed. 

as well as an odd place to take a crap.   

You wouldn't like prison. 

[Ecolitan]

as well as an odd place to take a crap.   

There's a chain of delis in Oklahoma City that has one way mirrors at the urinals.  You piss looking out at the dining room.  It's fun to take someone there for the first time and when they go to the bathroom wait a sufficient amount of time for them to whip it out and then everyone point and laugh at the mirror.  Doesn't usually work but when it does it's a story that never gets old.

<we now return to your regularly scheduled topic>

[Bill Brasky]

as well as an odd place to take a crap.   

There's a chain of delis in Oklahoma City that has one way mirrors at the urinals.  You piss looking out at the dining room.  It's fun to take someone there for the first time and when they go to the bathroom wait a sufficient amount of time for them to whip it out and then everyone point and laugh at the mirror.  Doesn't usually work but when it does it's a story that never gets old.

<we now return to your regularly scheduled topic>

Theres an exhibit like that (sorta) at Ripleys museum in Delaware, and probably other locations. 

When you enter, you pass the the two headed goat and all that shit, and you come to an exhibit that shows different kinds of people who can do recessive gene stuff with their tongues, curling their tongue into a loop, rolling it upside down, twisting it under like a flipped up doormat.

Theres a mirror where you can look at the different things some people can do with their tongue, and attempt to do it yourself, to see the results if you accomplished that oddity...  but it's a two-way mirror.

So, you stand there making stupid faces in the mirror, and later on in the tour, you come across an exhibit of people doing retarded things and its the reverse side of the mirror, that idiot was you half an hour ago. 

Its actually pretty funny.