Google Street View Raises Privacy Concerns

Pcol writes "The New York Times is running a story about a woman who says her cat is clearly visible through the living room window of her second-floor apartment using Street View and that she has contacted Google asking that the photo be removed. 'The issue that I have ultimately is about where you draw the line between taking public photos and zooming in on people's lives,' Ms. Kalin-Casey said in an interview. 'The next step might be seeing books on my shelf. If the government was doing this, people would be outraged.' Wired has started a contest on the most interesting photos found using the new Google Tool that now includes sunbathing coeds, alleged drug deals, and the google van itself. 'I think that this product illustrates a tension between our First Amendment right to document public spaces around us, and the privacy interests people have as they go about their day,' says Kevin Bankston, a staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation."

Comments

And they missed the obvious moral high ground..

[TheCouchPotatoFamine]

After all of their vaunted 'do no evil' slogan.. with all of the developement power they have, they didn't consider using image processing software to outline the drawing using the scenes natural colors, they didn't consider using a blur, they didn't consider making a very public statement about how they would use the technlogies and discard the true images...

they had here a perfect chance to lead the way in mapping and instead just became Britain^2. Way to go guys, way to lead the future.