To me, what makes it powerful is the ubiquity - the 'full take' ness of it all. Sure the app is solar-related data, just for a few regions. But could include whatever data Google chooses, expanded to the whole world, for whatever audience Google chooses.

I've worked with aerial surveillance systems, the types used on police choppers. Put the crosshairs of the flir camera on a house and it will tell you all kinds of stuff: age/race of occupants, arrest records, warrants, tax status, etc. Amazing for LE, but a bit big-brotherly for my taste.

In the wrong hands, in the wrong circumstances, data fusion has incredible potential for abuse. IMHO. :-)

But if the data is already public, surely making it more widely available devalues it as a means of control or coercion?

You can blackmail me if you know something no one else does. You can't if you know something everyone else does.

Services like this fix asymmetric access to information. They're not revealing anything new.

Normal citizens do not have the ability to perform data-fusion like Google or a Government Agency. Services like Sunroof give just a tiny window into what they know about you. Hardly anything could be more asymmetric.

I believe the potential for abuse exists. Everything is fine now (here in California). But when the next crisis comes, data-fusion can be a powerful tool for authoritarians to control their opponents and suppress dissent.

> Normal citizens do not have the ability to perform data-fusion like Google or a Government Agency. Services like Sunroof give just a tiny window into what they know about you. Hardly anything could be more asymmetric.

If you're a normal citizen who has technical skills, yes, you can do exactly the same data extrapolation with publicly available datasources.

Me noting that it can be done doesn't mean I'm going to waste my time building a similar app out while Google's service is still available.