UK Privacy Activist Claims Google Maps Is Illegal
from the oh-come-on dept
We've seen some silly claims about Google Maps/Google Earth lately, and they just keep coming. The latest is that a privacy activist in the UK is going to issue a legal challenge against Google's Street View offering in the UK, claiming that the photos violate peoples' privacy. Note: these are all photos of people in public places. The UK government has apparently given the go-ahead for Street View in the UK, but this guy is going to challenge that ruling, claiming that Google needs to get prior consent from everyone in the photos before using them. He's not at all satisfied that Google allows the blurring of faces and the ability to take down photos you really dislike. It doesn't sound like this legal challenge will go very far. The guy isn't even sure what law he's going to accuse Google of breaking, and the lawyers quoted in the article seem quite skeptical that there's anything illegal about the Street View product.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: google maps, privacy, street view, uk
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I trust private companies with that information infinitely more than I would ever trust a bureaucrat or police officer. Google wants to show people where things are ... the government wants to show people the inside of a jail cage. Or at least throw fines at them so they can justify the cost of putting up all those cameras in the first place.
Google has done more to protect my privacy than anyone else. They were the only US search engine that denied the federal government access to its logs without a court order, when Yahoo & Microsoft gave their logs upon a polite request. True, Google used the excuse that it would expose trade secrets, but they stood up to the government and its unreasonable expectations and demands.
I trust Google to know about me. I don't trust politicians to know about me.
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Re:
The government stands to lose power/money because we can vote them out.
Personally I think neither should have that kind of information, and its true that the government is far more dangerous with these things.
But I would rather that I had some say in what went on, as i have with government, than a company that can do whatever.
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Be Careful
It's pretty hard to make a legal case for or against Street View, because there's really never been anything like it before. Sure you could always drive around, take pictures, geotag them and post them on-line, but Google ads a whole new dimension to it by tying it right into the Maps behemoth.
I can understand people seeing this as invasive, but the question is really if it's a violation of someone's "legal" rights to privacy.
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As for people being caught on camera, I have never understood peoples' objections to an undated photo of them in a public place that was perfectly visible to anyone driving in front or behind of Google's car. How it's a privacy violation is beyond me.
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googe street view
I just don't understand how or why a person feels there is an invasion of privacy for anything visible from the street at street level? If you are parading naked before a window facing the street, whose fault is it when your picture gets snapped by the "street view" van?
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Privacy at stake!
At least it isn't some douche who wants to get rich by suing Google. I see the legitimacy of his complaints, but they won't stick in court. Kudos for trying.
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@Alan, agreed.
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Re:
wait, who's that standing over there with a hot-
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Joe Smith
Honestly the way people dig stupid humor, I think that pic of Joe Smith would probably get passed around and laughed at until eventually it got to someone who knew him!
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Home Buying
I use www.redfin.com to find listings
maps.live.com then click on Bird's eye to look at the neighborhood
maps.google.com then streetview to get better pictures of the house and neighboring houses
But street view can easilly be replaced if I drive by the house, and I do that anyway if I like what I see in street view because things like the yard could be dramatically different.
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Re: Home Buying
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Makes Sense
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Gooooooogle
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Wow
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1163456/Google-forced-black-hundreds-Street-View -photos-privacy-protests--site-gets-record-number-visits.html
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OMG
does he then track down these so called tourist's and take them to court as well?
when are people going to pull their collective heads out of their nose bag's & realize a PUBLIC PLACE IS A PUBLIC PLACE.
STAY IN IF YOU DONT WANT TO BE SEEN.
be it a passer by, cctv, snappy tourist's, beggars, blaggers, cops on push bikes, cops on foot, me, you & the whole world have the ability to see YOU in some form or another either directly or by proxy face it when you are in a public place weather you know it or not there is the possiblity you will get spotted/snapped/tracked/questioned/quized/glanced at/spoken too
Why don't this dude make better use of his time by lobbying against the fact that you now need government permission to protest!
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Unhappy
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Perspective
And at any rate, the ICO has taken the side of Google. More info at http://www.newsy.com/videos/privacy_in_the_age_of_google/
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