Freakonomics has an interview with Stephen Chau, the product manager for Google Maps, about Google’s new feature “Streets View” and the resulting concerns consumers have had about their privacy after several people were caught on Google’s cameras sunbathing, leaving strip clubs, or um…whatever.
3. Did you address specific privacy concerns from the outset?At Google we take privacy very seriously. Street View only features imagery taken on public property and is not in real time. 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. While the Street View feature enables people to easily find, discover, and plan activities relevant to a location, we respect the fact that people may not want imagery they feel is objectionable featured on the service. We provide easily accessible tools for flagging inappropriate or sensitive imagery for review and removal.
Each Street View imagery bubble contains a link to “Street View Help” where users can report objectionable images. Objectionable imagery includes nudity, certain types of locations (for example, domestic violence shelters) and clearly identifiable individuals, if those individuals request takedown. We routinely review takedown requests and act quickly to remove objectionable imagery.
Chau also discusses Google’s process for removing sensitive buildings (such as domestic violence shelters) from Streets View. What do you think? Is this a violation of privacy or a useful service for consumers? —MEGHANN MARCO
Google Maps Project Manager Speaks Out On “Street View” [Freakonomics]
(Photo: Google)
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I think this is a possible lawsute in the making from Google. Let me explain why.
Google is counting on PEOPLE to report what’s not legal. Let’s take a hypothetical situation here.
Let’s say there’s a person stalking me, and they know what I look like, but NOT where I live. My picuter gets up on Google. My stalker sees my picture before I do.
Let’s further say this guy’s a murderer who kills me and he found me BECAUSE of this picture on Google. See the problem?
And there are real life examples of this:
Witness protection
People who don’t want to be found by someone
Ex cons
This may not be legal, but realistically this move is opening up Google to a lawsuit if anything goes wrong.
We aren’t talking about Joe’s family vacation pictures here.
Hell, what happens if they take picutres of little susie and a perv sees her and finds out where she lives and abducts her?
AND if you shoot pictures of someone who’s permition you need to use them in a money making way, then Google could get sued over that.
I don’t see this legal argument holding water, all things considered.
If it were just street pictures? Fine. But throwing people into the mix is just asking for trouble somewhere along the lines.
I see the privacy concerns, but really, look at the pictures- see how blurry they are. No one can stalk you. No one can ID you as the one who walked by the strip club. They’re certainly not going to see in your windows or see what you’re doing on the ATM. I’m paranoid, and I’m not worried about this. Would I change my mind if they got a pic of me scratching myself in a personal area on the internet? No, not really. I probably couldn’t be identified, and I could ask for its removal anyway.
People have an expectation of privacy even when outside even though legally they do not. People don’t expect to have every day actions captured and posted for the world to see.
It seems to me that Google Street View is more concerned with getting as many street level images online as possible. They want this images to be as clear as possible and people are caught during their daily routine and posted.
Microsoft also has a street level imaging program being worked on in conjunction with Live Search. There is currently imaging on these maps but they have a birds eye view and no street level content is really visible. Microsoft is working on a process to remove any identifiable images such as faces or license plates from their street level imaging.
I wrote a post contrasting Google Maps Street View vs Microsoft Live Search Preview.
I find it a little creepy, yet at the same time, utterly fascinating that you can take a “virtual tour” of someplace at street level.
I could only hope one could write Google and say “Hey, that’s me peeing on my neighbor’s bushes” or “Hey, I’m the one sunbathing naked at the intersection” and hopefully they’d take it down or blur out my face so I didn’t have to endure the infamy of being plastered all over the internet.
I’m not sure what I think. But this type of imagery is going to be more and more widespread. Google isn’t the only one making it available. Check out this project from Microsoft called HD View: http://research.microsoft.com/IVM/HDView/HDGigapixel.htm?F…
What do you think the HD means? I can zoom into the windows of the apartment building in the foreground. In one of them you can see they forgot to make their bed before the MS cameras swept by.
@Dan25: Be my guest. I’m an amateur photographer and I know what’s legal and what’s not. If I expect my rights to be respected when shooting I respect yours.
Doesn’t mean I won’t give you a weird look or have the cops come check you out if I don’t know who you are and why you’re there and I feel creeped out (that sort of thing IS abnormal around here), but if they check you out and leave, why would I have a problem with it?
See, I’m not one of those hypocritical assholes who thinks that rule applies to everyone but me.
@ThomasW: They can “expect” all they want but this has been hashed out in court before so their expectation is wrong.
@Firstborn Dragon: No, Google is counting on people to report what is offensive, not what is legal/illegal. As many have said, several times, taking pictures in a public place is perfectly legal, even if those pictures capture images of other people.
Watch the news, when they have some sort of ‘man on the street’ shot. You see dozens, even hundreds of people in those shots. Do you think they stopped each and every person and asked permission to use their likeness in that footage? No, they did not. And they are not obligated to do so. This is no different.
This is just what is needed… a tool to give anyone with an internet connection the ability to scope out any building and property or neighborhood of their choice in the US… and carefully decide how they want to use what they see… to harrass home or property owners… and find other new inventive ways to market to the owner or occupant… or for criminals or other lowlifes to pick and choose where and when they want to do their will.
Will Mr. Rogers neighborhood remain the same?
It’s a little creepy to me, The Googleoids wandering aound out there are also densley, zombie-creepy – they’d walk obliviously straight out into traffic talking on cell-phones on Charleston and had to have crossing guards provided.
Anyhow they already have a top-down satellite view of my old truck parked in our parking lot, and now a streetside view of my new(er) truck.
IMO it’s a bit creepy and voyeuristic, and maybe that’s to be expected from a company half-started by a Russian dude familiar with a long-time Statist Population Observation Policy and with minimal personal privacy or anonymity expectations. Their motto is “Do no Evil” not “Don’t be Creepy.” Creepy suits them.
They’re in my backyard. They already have a satellite pic of my old truck (parked next to the garage, hidden from the street), and now they have one of my new truck parked next to the street. IMO it’s a bit creepy – and so are the Googleoids wandering heedlessly and oblivious between buildings off Charleston (the old Silicon Graphics bldgs.) They’d march straight into traffic talking on cell phones expecting to be saved by mere lines painted on asphalt – now they have sorta crossing guards to protect the Google-zombies. And don’t get me going about how teh-Suck they drive.
From an anthro-culture perspective perhaps this is to be expected in the Age of Multicultural Non-Assimilation and Aculturation, by a company half-founded by a Russian intimate with a long-time Statist population-observation policy that allowed the individual very little enjoyment of public privacy. Even the Czars had a secret police force that observed and monitored the peasants activities – it goes way back pre-Stalin.
OTOH their motto is something like, “Do no Evil,” which is infinitely more flexible in this post-modern world than “Don’t be Creepy.” Evil is a vague and possibly nonexistant term (derided by many has having no axis) while Creep is a direct, Identity Politics, label capable of use.
Google’s new Street View feature has caused a predictable sort of hubbub. Privacy advocates are upset; one woman freaked out when she could see her cat through the window of her house; one man was caught peeing by the side of the road.
Sorry about the double post, anyhow you can tell my enthusiasm. I wonder how well They would be received while photographing homes if they drove down the side-streets of a small town in Nebraska, or Texas or…somewhere the Interw3bz have not yet entirely penetrated the locals’ psyche.
1. Tired of Google Street View yet? Here, via TechCrunch, is the next step on the horizon: Microsoft’s Photosynth Project is developing a network of 3-D virtual maps depicting actual places. Meanwhile, 3-D street views of ten cities will launch this fall on Everyscape.