Google Street View — menace, menace, or menace?
No, really, Google Street View is pissing me off. It’s a new application that’s part of Google Maps that allows users to view street-level pictures of homes and businesses — using arrows, you can literally “walk” down a street, and catch glimpses of everything from local coffee shops to a guy peeing in the bushes. (The images were taken from a van that drove city streets, shooting 360 degrees of photos as it went.) Sure it’s fun to walk around in a virtual neighborhood, but there’s really no use value to this app that I can see, other than sheer voyeurism.
And voyeurism is what you get. Already, people have turned up countless pictures of people caught naked or semi-naked, somebody getting arrested, people groping each other, etc. Just because I might be willing to make out with my sweetie on a street corner doesn’t mean I want the image posted in public forever by Google without my permission. This is just another way Google is invading privacy and candy-coating it with a fun but useless app. Read my column this week to find out more about what’s wrong with Google Street View.
June 16th, 2007 at 2:35 am
I agree that there are huge privacy issues in publishing high-res images of people in public places.
But saying that street views are useless is like saying that satellite images and maps are useless. They are all representations of your surrounding environment and can have many (good and bad) applications. One can only wonder about what Google will use the street views for in the future.
June 17th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Google doesn’t need your permission, just like I don’t need you to sign a release if you appear in the background of a photograph I take of a friend in public and then post on my blog.
If you don’t like it, don’t walk around in front of an open window completely naked and don’t make out on the local street corner.
This is just an attempt to draw blog traffic by making a silly argument that someone else is infringing on your rights by exercising theirs.
All complaints, thus far, are theoretical.
June 18th, 2007 at 8:23 am
My point is that I shouldn’t have to worry that everything I do on the street is being recorded. Of course Google doesn’t need my permission to take pictures on the street. But does that mean I should support their business if I think it’s stupid? Nope.
As for my point about Street View being “useless” — all I meant was that it doesn’t add anything to my experience of Google maps. Satellite photos and other kinds of maps seem to me profoundly useful — pictures of people walking down Valencia St. may be fun but don’t help me find out how to get from Clipper St. to Market.
June 18th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Yay Annalee! I think you hit the key issue on the head – your likeness is being broadcast for profit.
Other legal issues remain like the fact that license plates are in full view near street addresses that probably have something to do with the vehicle’s owner.
I, for one, do expect some level of privacy while out. Security cameras aside, how would an individual who starts snapping pictures of you and your family from the sidewalk be treated? Is it legal to use a terrestrial telescope to peer into your apartment while the blinds are not shut?
I think Google should keep this service out of residential neighborhoods and use Google’s fancy face recognition software to tastefully blur everybody. Furthermore, as cameras become more pervasive we need to consider legislation defining what one can and cannot do with a shot of your likeness without your permission.
June 19th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
I can see this tool being used to place virtual (reality augmented) advertisements on virtual spaces that match products inside the store you’re virtual walking past.