Google Street View: Invading Privacy?

(©2008 Associated Press)

by Dan Cailler

Every day, more and more roads are being digitally mapped by Google's Street View Vans, capturing images of people, their cars, their homes, and anything else within eyeshot of private and public streets.

According to the AP, a London-based group, Privacy International, argued that Google Street View breached people's privacy. But the Information Commissioner in the UK has refused to shut down the service, despite complaints. The Commissioner said that "picturing people on street view was no different to filming faces of football fans..."

According to a CNET news article, a couple in Pittsburgh, PA, tried to sue Google for taking a photograph of their home. They claimed Google vans ignored a private road sign, but images from the van itself showed to such sign. Google, in response to these claims of invading privacy, said, "today's satellite-image technology means that...complete privacy does not exist," according to an article at Itnews.com.

There are now even websites (mashable.com, for example) dedicated to displaying the odd and amusing things captured by Google's vans - like pictures of ladies sunbathing, men urinating in public, patrons entering/exiting sex shops, and other things which, in Google's defense, are done IN PUBLIC.

But despite Google's policy to blur our faces and license plates, people do not like the fact these vans are out there.

• Is Google's capturing and documenting of public images somehow violating privacy rights? Google says it will remove any image by request of those whose image and property appears in Google Maps; but should Google be forced to obtain consent from everyone before publishing these 'public' images?
• It seems that the concept of privacy naturally evolves alongside technology. Do state legislatures need to redefine privacy with modern technology in mind? Is the concept of 'public property' without jurisdiction?...i.e. Do people in other states and countries have the right to see what traditionally only your fellow neighbors used to see?
• Do the benefits of Google maps outweigh the privacy issues? What about the privacy torte Custom and Usage? Does Google's documenting of the civilized world through pictures consider 'typical use' of public property?