In the excellent The Transparent Society by David Brin, he suggests that the two likely futures of cameras everywhere are:

1. the authorities get exclusive access to public cameras, to thwart crime
2. the public all get access, meaning even less privacy but more transparency

Both scenarios are based on the idea that the government owns all  roads, and therefore can place cameras anywhere they wish, in public.

This is missing the growing trend towards gated communities. In such places the roads are communally owned, and any cameras are only installed via a majority vote. Who gets to see the images is also democratically decided.

Gated communities are sometimes represented in Google Maps, but usually not. For example, the Brickell Key community in Florida is only in Google Maps up to the gate. The MapMerge will only be able to film places it has permission to enter, and will only have access to cameras within if it is allowed to.

The solve the problem of public surveillance cameras, perhaps road ownership needs to be adjusted, like this:

•  non thoroughfares – citizens have the right to jointly own the roads and collectively maintain and control them. If they choose to have a dirt path with potholes, that is their right (but of course property values would decrease). They can choose to have surveillance cameras or not. They can choose who can see the images and who cannot.
• all other roads need to be graded on the level of through traffic. Maintenance must meet standards. The authorities might be stakeholders regarding cameras. Certainly standard models can be developed, and the owners or renters along a street can have a say about who sees any real-time imagery. Images captured by passing traffic, just like Google’s vehicles today, would be unrestricted.

A gated community could simply choose to have no cameras. More likely the cameras would exist, but accessed only by stakeholders. They may choose to include the police or a security company. They might offer access to the MapMerge, to encourage visitors (perhaps vacant lots are still for sale) or business.

The MapMerge system will have black spots:

• gated communities
• non-gated communities that control the road infrastructure
• countries like North Korea
• sensitive locations like army bases

The layers of permissions and accessibility in MapMerge will be complicated, but certainly achievable. People will adjust to the layers quite quickly.