The Eye in the Sky

There is an eye watching everything you do. While this is not much of a news flash for celebrities, the rich and the famous, but it might give you some pause to consider that now you too are being recorded, and that the detailed minutia of your life – including all the compromising positions you might find yourself in – could be published online for mass consumption.

Meet Bill. Bill is a thirty-six year-old man living in northern Australia (story reported by the English MailOnline, on August 11 of this year, amongst others). He is a pretty good guy. He works in the fishing industry and tries to make a living, and makes the best of what he has. Bill and a good friend were recently planning a nice bike ride around the island of Tasmania. Sounds like a nice simple life.

Unfortunately though, Bill has been going through a tough time lately. Among other challenges, he lost one of his best friends. The loss of a loved one is always difficult, and Bill resorted to a common, yet disastrous, course of therapy – alcohol. One night after a few too many drinks, it was time to go home. Being an upstanding, responsible person, Bill called a taxi. Upon arriving at home in a tired and drunken stupor, he somehow convinced himself that it would be a good idea to take a rest in front of his house before making his way in. So, innocently enough, he stretched out on the walkway in front of his quiet suburban home and took a short rest.

A while later, after getting his needed rest, he made his way to his house, slept off the effects of the alcohol, and continued going about his life. That is, until he decided to check out his house on Google Street View a few days later. After typing in his address, he was horrified to see a clear image of his home – with him lying down in the street in front of it in his embarrassing drunken state just a few days earlier.

This feature is part of Google Maps, which provides not only directions, but also actual satellite images of any place in the world. The new Street View feature adds images of the streets and houses of many places all over the world. At first glance, this feature is cute and perhaps even somewhat informative (I am still not sure who needs this information, but that is another story). But it is surely disturbing for others, such as Bill. Is this not a violation of Bill's rights? Does he not have the right to lie in a drunken stupor on his street, without it being posted on the world wide web for all to see?

What does Bill have to say about this latest web-related privacy controversy? "I mean, I wouldn't have been there in the state that I was in, but I wasn't really thinking there would be someone driving by with a video camera on the roof filming me, either." The man has a point. Had he known that he would be filmed he would not have done it, so it seems very wrong.

A spokesman for Google Australia, Rob Shilkin, said the company had taken significant steps to protect the privacy of individuals, including face-blurring and tools for people to flag sensitive imagery for removal. Yet, I am not sure, even with Google's assurance, how fast our new friend Bill – or anybody else, for that matter – will be napping in public, drunk or sober. The shame and embarrassment is there.

The truth is that celebrities and other recognizable people have this problem all the time. They can never do anything 'off the record.' There is the ever-present paparazzi ready to photograph, document and publicize every step they take. But now it seems that Google has made us all into celebrities. Is there any hope of living a private life? Is it time for more stringent privacy laws?

Perhaps. But I don't intend to enter a discussion of privacy laws and rights. Rather, I want to reflect this development against a reality discussed in our teachings.

The Mishna, the first recording of Jewish oral tradition, teaches us that a person must always know that there is, "an eye that sees and an ear that hears and all that he does is recorded." Granted, the Mishna was not referring to Google's hacks, with their car-mounted video cameras, but the idea is still very real from the Sages' perspective. Being that we are all part of G‑d, He knows, sees and hears everything we do. To make things more exiting, we are taught that when Moshiach comes even the stones of the walls will testify about our behavior. (And you thought Big Brother was intimidating.)

The reality that everything we do is being witnessed and recorded has existed for centuries. Is is a spiritual paradigm that forms the foundation of individual human responsibility in Judaism. Google just made this idea more palpable by demonstrating how this can be so using simple, corporeal technology. But the spiritual technology has been there all along.

So is this supposed to make us scared? Are we supposed to wonder whether we fear G‑d as much as we fear Google? I don't think so. I think the lesson to be learned is that everything we do matters – otherwise, why would anyone – whether G‑d or Google – bother recording our actions. This type of development shakes us out of our complacency, and moves us away from thinking that our actions are insignificant.

In the story of your life, you are the star. Don't try to hide behind privacy laws. Step up top the plate and go for the home run. Be a living example of an upstanding person for your audience, even after you have a little l'chayim.