The authors warn that location-based surveillance technologies could be used by repressive regimes to enslave populations.
Jerome Dobson worries that 1984 may be just around the corner. Dobson, a University of Kansas research professor and president of the American Geographical Society, is concerned that technical advances carry the potential for bringing about George Orwell's nightmarish vision of a society that destroys privacy. This new threat, says Dobson -- a respected leader in the field of geographic information technologies -- is "geoslavery."
The availability of high-resolution satellite imagery could help human rights groups by allowing them to survey scenes of heinous crimes without endangering the lives of researchers. With the help of satellite imagery, analysts could substantiate or refute news reports of systematic destruction of villages. While it would be dangerous for a non-governmental organization (NGO) to fly a spy plane over warring territories to look for mass graves, very high-resolution commercial satellite imagery could, without risk, provide data to much the same effect.