Privacy watchdogs battle Google's Street View
By: Drivers.com staff
Date: 2008-08-06
If it hasn�t happened already, the time may soon come when a web surfer on the other side of the planet (or the other side of town) can cruise down your street, zooming in on photographed details of your house, your car, perhaps even you.
Google says it has technologies that can block out privacy-invading details such as your face or your car's license plate number, or perhaps details visible through the window of your home. Privacy watchdogs are not so sure about that.
The Street View service is widely available in the United States (since May 2007), particularly in major cities, and more recently it�s been launched in Europe. Google just announced an Australian version and plans for a New Zealand launch.
Google provides its service by delegating vehicles to drive along roadways, digitally recording 360-degree images which then become available to web surfers using Google Maps. Apart from virtual tourism, it can be a very useful tool for finding addresses or businesses.
There's no doubt this is part of a trend which will make every part of the known world available to us in virtual reality. Increasingly sophisticated technologies are stitching together digital information (maps, videos, photography) gathered by millions of individuals and thousands of organizations, and enabling the construction of this virtual reality.
Meanwhile, you can go to Google Maps, zoom in on a city such as Miami or Chicago, pick a street and cruise down it with your computer mouse. It�s voyeurism on a grand scale and fun to do, but the privacy considerations are complex and bothersome.
Sometimes the gripes can seem frivolous, as in the case of one Pennsylvania couple who are currently suing Google for an "intentional and/or grossly reckless invasion" of their privacy. They maintain that Google has made photos of their home, which is situated on a private street, available to the world at large.
Google counters that the photos of the couple's home are already accessible on the internet and that they have invited large-scale publicity by launching their law suit. Details of the case are available on TheSmokingGun.com web site.
One of Google�s key points is that the couple did not take advantage of Streetview's facility to remove images that infringe privacy.
In the U.K., where Google photography is believed to have begun this summer, the privacy controversy is even more heated. Privacy International, a UK rights group, believes the technology breaks data protection laws.
While it's legal to take people's photos in public streets in the U.S., U.K. law maintains that, because the photos are being used for commercial purposes, anyone appearing in a photo needs to grant consent to Google.
Privacy watchers are skeptical about Google's claim that it can use sophisticated scanning technology to identify private information (such as license plates or faces) and blur these images.
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