Google's Latest is Plain Scary

Parent Cafe
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<p>Now, even if you don’t use the Internet, you still could end up having your privacy invated by it.</p>

<p>AP-"SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. bills the latest twist on its online maps as “Street View,” but it looks a bit like “Candid Camera” as you cruise through the panorama of pictures that captured fleeting moments in neighborhoods scattered across the country.</p>

<p>In San Francisco, there’s a man picking his nose on a street corner, another fellow taking out the trash and another guy scaling the outside of an apartment building, perhaps just for fun or maybe for some more sinister purpose.</p>

<p>Further down the highway at Stanford University, there’s the titillation of a couple coeds sunbathing in their bikinis. In San Jose, there’s the rather sad sight of a bearded man apparently sleeping — or did he just pass out? — in the shadow of a garbage can, with what appears to be an empty cup perched in front of him…"
<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18987058/[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18987058/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Your privacy cannot be invaded if you are doing something in public. If you don’t want the world to know you go to adult book stores, possibly you should go there in the first place. </p>

<p>There is simply no invasion of privacy here because no one has a right of privacy in a public place like a street.</p>

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<p>Certainly, you are right that one’s privacy isn’t being invated if one is doing something in public. However, in our society, until what Google just started doing, it was reasonable to expect that if one were outside doing one’s normal activities, one wouldn’t end up being filmed and placed on the Internet for anyone in the world to view. </p>

<p>One doesn’t have to be doing something illegal or sleazy to not want to be filmed and displayed to the world.</p>

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<p>Your statement was, “you still could end up having your privacy invated by it.” That statement is plainly false.</p>

<p>Google will delete photos of those who did not wish to have been photographed. Thus, not a big deal.</p>

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<p>I think this is all very creepy! And as I am reading Jane Hamilton’s Map of the World, though only halfway done, I am reminded that being fodder for the public can be a ruthless proposition.</p>

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<p>It still is a big deal. Photos of people doing ordinary actions still could be displayed to the world. Sure, Google is willing to take the photos down if people complain, but the photos still would have been seen by many. Also, there’s a good chance that one’s pictures could be displayed for a long time before one learns that they are on Google. Many people don’t use the Internet. Even Internet users aren’t likely to spend time scrutinizing Google to see if their picture is posted.</p>

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<p>I checked out the Google examples and from what I saw the resolution is such that you can’t actually make out the facial details so I doubt that it’s too much of an invasion of privacy. I assume they’re doing this on purpose. </p>

<p>Go to Google maps and check it out. The concept is pretty cool IMO.</p>

<p><a href=“http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/index.html[/url]”>http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;