The world’s largest and most successful search engine is no stranger to controversy regarding people’s privacy. Google strives to bring new and innovative products to the web that generally make information more accessible to everyone. In their latest attempt, Google made an interesting addition to their Google Maps feature. It’s called “street view” and it gives users the ability to zoom down to the street level of a city on a map and see actual photographs and panorama views. Obviously this isn’t the case in every single neighborhood but in most big cities you are able to see what was going on in the city at the time the photographs were taken.
It has become an interesting and quite exciting feature. You can zoom down to the ground level of your favorite big city. You can cruise the streets of New York and revisit some areas you haven’t been to in a long time or cruise the Las Vegas Strip and check out the marvelous casinos. While more and more people are using the Google Maps “Street View,” people are starting to discover some interesting moments that were recorded and available to the public. In San Francisco, you can find a man standing on the street corner picking his nose, people taking out the trash and one man looking a little suspicious climbing on the outside of an apartment building. If you journey down to Stanford University, you can find a couple younger coeds catching some rays in their bikinis. In other parts of California, you can find homeless people living on the streets, groups of protesters picketing in front of an abortion clinic and many people have found embarrassing moments showing men walking out of adult strip clubs in the middle of the day.
With all these potentially embarrassing or private moments available to the entire world, the privacy question comes into play. Many people were bothered by the images they discovered in “Street View.” Google Spokeswoman Megan Quinn said, “This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see walking down the street. Imagery of this kind is available in a wide variety of formats for cities all around the world.” The “street view” ability is currently only available in San Francisco bay area, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami but Google plans on expanding to more U.S. cities.
Legal analysts believe that Google has every right to take pictures in public places so any lawsuits filed again the Internet giant would most likely be dismissed. Google also mentions that they have no intention of harming anyone with the new tool but helping. They have provided a way to submit a request that a certain image be removed if it causes any serious privacy concerns although they claim they have had very few removal requests. They are also working with different organizations to blur out any images where someone’s privacy or anonymity would be in jeopardy. Although most people probably find this mildly intrusive, it is a good sign of times to come in the changing world of technology.
- Submit site to the following directory categories: World and City Maps, Internet Privacy
To me, the issue with Google Street View pertains to one’s Right of Publicity more than one’s Right to Privacy. For more, see my blog!
Comment by Brian Combs — June 15, 2007 @ 2:47 pm