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Google Japan To Help Victims of Street View Abuse

Posted by timothy on from the eviscerate-and-boil-them dept.

Joshua writes "After repeated concerns from Japanese citizens over privacy rights violations involving Street View and a probe by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Google Japan has announced that it will help victims of Street View photo abuse take action against offending sites. Google Japan said it would send requests to the sites for removal of maliciously used Street View images. It will also potentially block the site from Google's search engine and consider legal action for those sites which ignore or refuse the request. Action to this extent against secondary-use abusers is reportedly a first in relationship to Google's Street View worldwide."

5 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Examples? by oheso · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The story lacks any examples of what might constitute malicious abuse. I'm aware of the Streisand Effect, but if there have been lots of complaints then there should be some examples.

    But the main point is the Google is responding to criticism of an invasion of privacy with a rather blatant attempt to redirect the arrow. "Yes! We published these photos and we're here to help you prosecute anyone who republishes them!"

    Please ... Japanese value their privacy. (Well, some do anyway.) If republication of the photos has led to bullying, should Google share in the responsibility?

    1. Re:Examples? by oheso · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not too bizarre. It puts the camera below the height of many privacy walls/fences. But still, the journalist should be calling Google out on this rather than simply regurgitating the press release.

    2. Re:Examples? by rtb61 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, it would be a bit hard to complain about the camera if it takes one photo every few years or so and dumps them in with, what, billions of other images, meh, it wouldn't bother me at all. Of course to be fair, my street is not on google view although it is in the middle of numerous other streets that are. just one of those odd google street view quirks.

      In quite little old Adelaide, SA, I have found people are more irritated by their address not being properly defined on street view and not being above to say email the google link as driving directions, rather than their property of themselves showing up on street view. Perhaps it is a personal space thing, in countries like Australia where there is a lot of personal space available are more comfortable to rather impersonal distant incursions and, people in Japan who are basically stacked one atop another with very little personal space are more reactive of incursions whilst seemingly are more willing to specifically intrude upon another person's space.

      Of course one has to wonder how much google's competitors secretly motivate opposition to google's street because they lack a comparable service. When it comes to finding a place on a map, MSN search, Yahoo et all suck in comparison to being able to take a squiz ( http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/news/australian_style/v16_no1/word_column.htm ) at a place and it's approaches before you get there, it certainly makes life easy and, I have to admit to being a bit of a google street view tourist.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  2. Re:Help? by siloko · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Can Google be morally anything other than a search engine?

    Now that's not a sentence you hear every day, care to explain what it means?

  3. Re:I guess I can see their point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not in Japan it wouldn't.