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Google's Streetview Seen As Culturally Insensitive In Japan

Posted by timothy on from the so-don't-look dept.

Jim O'Connell writes "Global Voices has a translation of an excellent open letter to Google by Osamu Higuchi, explaining that Street view is too invasive for Japanese traditional values when used in residential areas. Having lived here for ten years, most recently in an older residential area, I can attest to its accuracy — Living in such close proximity to your neighbors, it becomes necessary to 'not look' at everything that you might be able see from a place such as the street, where you may have a legal right to be. The cultural boundaries are simply different than those of the US."

4 of 524 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I thought Taboos applied to people not things. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And Google is not run by people?

    Of course Google isn't run by people. The company reached singularity years ago.

  2. Re:After living there... by kestasjk · · Score: 5, Funny

    No! You are outraged and disgusted!

    --
    // MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
  3. Re:Same here. by Dachannien · · Score: 5, Funny

    On the net, we've evolved the ROBOTS.TXT for just this problem

    I've found that the CURTAINS.TXT convention works pretty well in meatspace.

  4. Re:Same here. by 6Yankee · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've found that the CURTAINS.TXT convention works pretty well in meatspace.

    Meat curtains, eh?