Google Street View – privacy concerns: real or imaginary?
Google Maps is awesome. Google Maps with Street View is even better. Just think of all the interesting things you can find with it: intoxicated men, topless sunbathers, a man climbing over a fence to (possibly) to break into a house, UFO-look-alikes, as well as offensively ugly vehicles. Most recently, there have been numerous complaints about the web-based mapping application that relate to privacy: Google Street View has been capturing hanging laundry in Japan’s backyards and – on occasion – not blurring vehicle license plates.
What appears to be the problem in Japan is the Google Street View vehicle – or more specifically, its camera: it is mounted too high – high enough to see over fences and into yards. This violates certain expectations of privacy in Japan. Google has already captured Street View footage for Tokyo as well as 11 other major Japanese cities but has announced that it will be throwing out all of that work and starting from scratch after making modifications to the camera mounts in order to lower the cameras’ field of vision.
Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is. Street View can be extremely helpful to tourists, travelers, and others who are unfamiliar with an area and its benefits far outweigh the privacy complaints. Here is my question to those who think Google Street View impinges on peoples’ privacy by being able to capture the details of Japanese backyards:
can I walk over to your public street and get the same “view” as Google’s street-capture vehicles did?
The answer, most likely, will be a shy, yet truthful, “yes.” So what’s the problem here? Is it just the age-old battle between the privacy-obsessed and the privacy-indifferent? Or have I completely missed the mark here? Let me know in the comments
Posted in Google, Maps, Privacy
4 comments to “Google Street View – privacy concerns: real or imaginary?”
Leave a comment
Additional comments powered by BackType
18. June 2009 at 3:26 pm :
Street view is also great if you're in the real estate business or looking to buy in certain areas. You can find potential houses and street-view the neighborhoods to check them out. I would like to see higher quality images in the future but for now it's a great product.
18. June 2009 at 3:43 pm :
That's a great use of Street View that I haven't thought of. Although some gated communities don't allow the cars in the gate, as is the case in my development.I think higher quality images will come – eventually – once we get our hands on FIOS and DOCSIS 3.0 with cable providers like Comcast.I'd also love to see Street View on more mobile devices like the iPhone. Maybe the compass in the iPhone 3Gs will assist with that. I can see some really cool uses for it with Street View, like standing in the middle of the street and going into Street View mode, then as you turn around, the map on your iPhone (or other mobile device) turns around with you. Obviously, GPS will need to beinvolvedas well.
20. June 2009 at 1:37 pm :
[...] = 'technestreport'; Earlier this week we reported that Google’s Street View has come under substantial privacy-related criticism in Japan. [...]
30. June 2009 at 11:25 am :
yes it is really an amazing thing….. we recently rented a house in Melbourne (from India) and wanted to check how it luks from outside and the way leading to it…. neighborhood and all that stuff….. i used google street view and felt like i was walking those streets and standing infront of the house…. absolutely it outweighs its concerns…. a great tool….