A company funded by Bill Gates and other prominent investors plans to deploy a “large constellation” of hi-tech satellites to provide a real-time video feed of pretty much all of the Earth, all the time.

EarthNow, a spin-out from Intellectual Ventures, states in a press release that their goal is to “connect everyone visually with the Earth in real-time.”

Applications include catching criminals in the act, observe developing weather patterns, spotting wildfires as they begin to burn, and “assist the media in telling stories around the world.”

The technology is claimed to be a “dramatic leap forward in capability compared to other Earth observation satellite systems.”

EarthNow founder and CEO Russel Hannigan says, “With existing systems, users can see only what has happened in the past. With EarthNow’s constellation of satellites, you will see events unfold as they happen in realtime.”

But the impressive scale of the surveillance, as well as the advanced technology, is likely to raise privacy concerns.

A Gizmodo article titled “Bill Gates Backs Plan to Surveil the Entire Planet From Space” calls the pitch “unsettling” and the prospect of the advanced technology being made available to government and enterprise clients “terrifying.”

And with the privacy-critical issue of camera resolution currently undisclosed, concerns appear justified.

A reply to the question about camera resolution features on the EarthNow website FAQ:

“The native video resolution, combined with image enhancement techniques, is designed to enable event monitoring and tracking applications consistent with existing and future customer requirements.”

Gizmodo commenter Stephen Zielinski points out “Very carefully not disclosed; pure bafflegab.”

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder and executive chairman of the website Reddit, said in 2014 of new technologies that threaten privacy “The surveillance state has run amok. Technology that’s enabled us to send selfies 24/7—not that valuable—has also enabled us to be spied upon 24/7.”