Google Street View - How Personal Should It Get?
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Google Street View is coming under attack from all sides by some who are contending that Street View is getting too personal. So as I was surfing the Internet I found an article which represents just how personal things are getting. Picture this. You received notification that a very close friend of yours has died. You go to your local pub and get drunk. You are taken home by a taxi,and pass out on your front lawn. You subsequently discover that some one has posted the Google Street View of you passed out on the Internet.
First of all I am not interested in the fact about why the man got drunk, nor the fact that he passed out in his yard. What is of concern is that his privacy. In the article it states:
But the latest victim, who gave his name only as ‘Bill’, is not planning an official complaint.
‘I’m not too happy about it’ said Bill.
‘I mean, I wouldn’t have been there in the state that I was in, but I wasn’t really thinking there would be someone driving by with a video camera on the roof filming me, either,’ Bill, 36, said from northern Australia, where he is working with a fishing company.
‘What do you do when you lose a mate like that?’ he said of his pal, with whom he had been planning a motorbike holiday around the island of Tasmania.
‘I know what he would have done if I left - he would have partied, too. That’s what I would’ve wanted him to do so that’s what I did with some friends.’
Bill said he accepted he could not expect to have complete privacy in a public street, but he questioned whether his embarrassing moment should be broadcast over the internet.
Though ‘Bill’ is taking the incident in stride, it does make one wonder where our privacy starts and where it ends. Who is to decide what is appropriate to post on the Internet? Who decides what is private and what is not? If you are on the street, are you fair game?
Comments welcome.
Source.
4 Comments
John
August 13th, 2008
at 9:26pm
I’m waiting for Google Window View.
garybeafl
August 14th, 2008
at 7:42am
Street view went down my street just as the garbage truck was going down the street. I live on a street that is only one block long. Don’t you think they could have waited until the truck went away?
Darryl
August 14th, 2008
at 10:40pm
Haven’t there been out-cries about “big Brother” keeping tabs on our personal lives over the past few decades? And now all of a sudden, here comes Google, now don’t get me wrong Google has given/supplied us with some great products, photographing/video’ing us in all our glory, AND without our express permission.
Usually, if our local council is planning on doinf eg: road works, down our street, they inforn us by either mail/flyers, or over the tv/radio.
Who actually gave GOOGLE permission to casually cruise OUR streets video’ing our homes? ? ?
I know I didn’t sign any permission form. Am I to assume that it’s up to me to request to google to not have my property in their Google Maps after they have already assigned it? Shouldn’t they be asking me for permission?
hmmmm . . . .
Helen
August 18th, 2008
at 9:19pm
If I’m standing on 5th street… I can look at a building on 5th street…. but…
If I’m standing on 4th street… and can look at that same building on 5th street… that’s evil.
Huh?
They are only buildings and people! They are only pictures! They are the same ones you see everyday, everywhere!