By Judi McLeod
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Big Brother is not only watching you, he's taking your pretty picture.
Zaio, a Calgary-based corporation that trades under the symbol "Zao" on the TSX-V exchange in Canada, is in the process of photographing and appraising each and every property in cities across the United States. "That means every house, commercial building, industrial and institutional structure is being photographed and appraised property-by-property and street-by-street," Zaio claims on its Internet home page. "We call this historic event "Photographing America".
The result is a database to die for.
Zaio's database of images and valuations is called "GeoPic", and is a useful resource for real estate, mortgage and insurance industries. The photographs are also an effective aid to police, fire and ambulance dispatching.
Property owners, who don't want close-up pictures of their possessions kept in a stranger's database, can always paint and change the looks of their buildings with cosmetic changes, right?
Wrong. The eye that is everywhere has developed proprietary software and systems to continuously maintain and update the database as properties change and redevelopment occurs.
"Each photo is individually framed to strict GeoPic standards and photos are generally taken during summer months when landscaping is in full color. The database grows over time as updates constantly improve upon prior releases."
Zaio makes listing properties a picnic for real estate companies. Zaio creates real estate photo content through mass photography of entire cities, and develops virtual tours for businesses nationwide. Zaio infrastructure provides a smooth transition of images and other information across any medium to meet many market needs.
And get this. Zaio photographs the inside of buildings.
"Not only can Zaio capture images of the interior of your business, it can post them directly to the Internet and link them to the corresponding exterior photo of your business or storefront, forming "visual" business directories," the company boasts.
People can be photographed without ever knowing it.
Virtual Tours are created by Zaio's Zone Photographers and are interactive: objects within a photo can be linked to other photos, email, websites or specific links that generate communications between the client and business or merchant. Images with mouse-over text can display people, products, pricing and clear descriptions. Virtual Tours allow any consumer to quickly become familiar with your location or business, providing the extra information and interest needed to draw them to you.
Before you could say "cheese", all cities across the country have been segmented into photography "Zones". Each Zone has a population of approximately 30,000 people and is independently owned and operated by a Zaio "Zone Photographer" and "Zone Appraiser".
"Zaio can be your instant window to the world! The electronic photo industry is reshaping the fundamentals of information exchange, business management and the merchant/client relationship."
No word at the moment about what happens if these photographs ever get into the wrong hands or how Zaio loot is protected from assassins and thieves.
No one could be conducting this type of business without Intelligence Agency approval.
Big Brother is here and it makes no difference whether or not you smile for the camera.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2024 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2024 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement