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Privacy in the Outdoors

I remember vividly the photo in the gear catalog: Someone cozily tucked in to their tent with the copy (paraphrasing), “You can’t get junk mail here.” That captures for many of us why we desire wilderness. No junk mail. No e-mail. No phone calls.

Google recently announced that it will start taking images of bike paths and hiking trails as part of its Street View option on Google Maps. But do we really want Google taking images of trails? What’s the idea behind that? To look at the trail on your iPhone instead of hiking it? To look at images of the trail while you’re hiking it? Absurd.

More importantly, what does this mean for privacy? In our regular lives, there is no privacy. A camera takes a picture of you driving or walking across the street. You can always be tracked down via your cell phone. Google knows what websites you’ve been searching, what books you’ve purchased online and who knows what else about you.

I go to the backcountry (even the frontcountry) to get away from that. To not be found. To not be accessible. To the take the road less traveled. To have privacy. If I get mauled by a bear and can’t call 911 on my cell phone, well, that’s the chance I take. And that’s the excitement of it.

The last thing I want to see when I’m setting up camp is a Google tricycle riding by with a video camera. I don’t want to see my tent via satellite image on Google Earth. I want one place in this world where technology can’t intrude on my privacy. Maybe it’s time to write clauses into our wilderness management plans excluding information gathering by government or corporations in wilderness areas.
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