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You have the protection money, right? Photo by Lachlan Hardy via Flickr

I was scanning through some tech stories in my RSS reader when I came across an interesting story about Google. According to ReadWriteWeb, Google’s patent application on a method to place advertisements in online mapping applications like Google Street View was approved. The patent describes a system that would identify objects in images, such as buildings, billboards, posters in windows, etc and allow for the images on those objects to be digitally replaced with either advertising or a link. According to the patent filing, the advertisement could be for the property owner or sold to the highest bidder.

My Issue:
What worries me about this patent is the fact that Google could post advertisements on other people’s properties that those people/companies might not approve of. Let me give a couple examples. (more…)