Disguise Me

After reading this article in the IHT about Google's Street View, I began thinking about what will likely be a growth industry in the future - personal disguises.  Think about it.  If we are all being photographed willy-nilly everywhere we go, by companies such as Google, but also by anyone with a camera phone, our relative anonymity on the street effectively disappears. (I say "anonymity" vs. privacy because the word seems more appropriate - walking around outside seems to forgo "privacy", but more on that another time.)

Rather than trying to control everyone with camera phones, roof-mounted cameras and satellites, it is much easier to take personal responsibility for one's anonymity.  If you don't want to be identified outdoors, wear a disguise!  While I don't expect to see lots of people walking around with Lone Ranger masks in the near future, I expect that sophisticated silicon-based face masks may become the accessory du jour in the future.  Remember the Jetson's?  I also remember reading a sci-fi book that discussed this extensively - I think it was by Stephen Baxter.  At that point people were wearing total camoflage outfits...to hide from wormhole pin cameras or something like that where people could spy on you from the future.  But you get the picture.