Re: privacy...
I suspect that its main use at Google will be to enable them to run face recognition software to work out who is in your photos, and then see what other photos these faces are recognised in, producing a net of likely terrorists customers for the organizations that actually pay them.
Got it in one. I'm impressed by Google's ability to make people continuously overlook the fact that their main income is derived from data collection based intelligence, and I suspect that drives more than just focused advertising.
By the way, I have the impression that Google outsources some of that facial processing work to your own computer, why would Picasa otherwise already do this? In this context I'm not happy with Apple either as the Photo app on OSX also does this, without any ability to disable it. Maybe I ought to lob that ball over the fence to Data Protection officials in a few countries and see how it lands.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
