Since high-resolution satellite imagery made its commercial debut in 1999, the technology has been embraced for everything from national security to town planning.

Journalists have also joined the fray, using satellite photography to cover anything from the siege of Fallujah in Iraq to the horrifying tsunami that recently struck Asia.

Eric Loo and Morris Jones (the author of this article) perform academic research on the use of satellite images in news at the University of Wollongong, Australia. As anyone who has monitored the remote sensing industry knows, the most sensitive issue facing satellite images in the media is national security.

The media and the satellite companies they depend on have faced dilemmas over releasing images of coalition forces mustering for battle, or exposing the layout of sensitive military or government installations.

Lurking over the entire scene is the spectre of "shutter control", a legal principle that allows the US government to censor the release of images if they are judged to be hazardous to national security.

It's understandable that military affairs and national security have dominated so much of the debate over public access to high-resolution imagery.

The debut of high-resolution images has coincided with some highly turbulent international events, including the launch of two major wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Sensitivity over the potential use of such images by terrorists compounds these discussions.

Careful footwork by satellite companies, and occasionally by news editors, has allowed the imagery community to steer a finely balanced course through these challenges. Imagery has generally been used without restrictions, and national security has not been influenced.

But the high-resolution satellite industry is evolving. It's currently possible to obtain images with 61 centimetre resolution.

In the near future, commercial satellites with half-metre resolution are expected. Technology doesn't stand still, and the industry could eventually see satellites operating with resolutions of 25 centimetres or even better.

Such resolutions were achieved long ago by classified intelligence-gathering satellites, and it's not unreasonable to expect the civilian world to catch up.

Even if the US government places restrictions on such high-resolution "birds", other nations could always fill the gap.

But access to high-resolution images will probably by authorized by the US itself in an incremental process, just as access to highly accurate Global Positioning System transmissions was introduced.

So, we must consider the eventual introduction of such advanced satellites, which will show us the Earth below like nothing before them.

What will such satellites be able to see? With current imagery, it's usually possible to spot vehicles on roads, but not really identify them. A very high resolution image could allow a vehicle to be identified in terms of its type (car or truck) and possibly its make or model.

Current satellites only show people when they are densely massed in large crowds, and even then, it's impossible to pick out individuals.

Satellite images of precincts such as Darling Harbour in Sydney look empty, even though they are filled with strolling pedestrians. Future satellites could not only spot individual people, but possibly allow them to be distinguished from one another.

The national security boffins would already be combing through the implications of such images, but for the media, another arena of debate arises: privacy.

Concerns over potential invasions of privacy were raised long before a high-resolution satellite was launched, but so far, they don't seem to have materialized in practice. This is partially due to the limitations of current images, but also due to the way they have been applied. This could change if satellites can see individuals, and are also used to track specific people.

A person could possibly be identified in a specific location by comparing a few pixels from a satellite image with some form of "ground truth" reference, such as knowing what sort of clothing they were wearing on a particular day.

But even without spotting people, it will still be possible to see details of private houses and grounds. Was their car parked in their driveway? This will also be possible to determine.

One media group could easily exploit such systems. Paparazzi stalk celebrities constantly, photographing their activities. A satellite image of a celebrities' private home would be an attractive target.

So far, the media have generally been unwilling to pay for satellite imagery or actively task its collection. But the profits to be made by paparazzi photographers and the media outlets that publish their products can be high enough to justify paying for a dedicated image.

In the past, celebrities have protested attempts to photograph their properties from aircraft. Similar trends could eventually appear in the satellite world. Will injunctions or lawsuits follow?

Investigative journalists could follow suit, although using advanced satellite images to build up a complex news story would take more time and effort, possibly more than the news organizations and the satellite companies themselves are willing to provide.

Reporters won't pay for images, and normally, satellite companies will only supply them for free if they are easy to obtain, or will make a major public-relations impact for the satellite operators.

If a location isn't particularly newsworthy, it's unlikely that there will be an archived image that can be pulled off a server for free. Satellite companies would also be unlikely to task a satellite to collect it without being paid.

This could restrict the use of very high resolution images for all but the most high-profile events, a situation that presently exists with conventional high-resolution satellites. So orbital stakeouts of corrupt officials are not likely to appear.

If the reasoning above holds true, it would seem that investigative journalism would have little to gain from an increase in satellite resolution.

Military and national security stories would be far more vivid with more detail from space, but the fundamentals of their use would probably not change. There would be more detail visible in images of natural disasters, but the overall impact of these images would probably remain the same.

Snooping on movie stars in their estates is regarded by most professional journalists as one of the least respectable activities in the media. Serious journalists prefer not to classify such activity as real journalism.

Yet it would seem, in a bitter twist of irony, that the pursuit of tabloid candid photography has more to gain from an increase in commercial satellite resolution than any other aspect of contemporary reporting.

What will the satellite companies make of this? Will they attempt to block sales of specific locations if they suspect that Peeping Tom activities are underway? Is it reasonable to expect them to know the difference, when real estate surveys routinely photograph buildings for commercial purposes?

Celebrities often try to counteract the activities of paparazzi with legal orders preventing them from approaching their property or persons. Would such legislation be extended to satellite imagery? In the event of a legal dispute, would the publisher or the satellite company be sued? And what of the right to privacy and issues of trespass?

The world has grown accustomed to remote sensing from space. But such remote sensing has never affected people at such an individual level. These remain largely unresolved questions at the present, and the laws in one country would certainly differ from others.

It will be years before such concerns materialize in practice, but it is not too early to consider the implications.

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