Right: The snapper snapped: a Sydney newspaper published this photograph of the google "street view" photography vehicle. (The inset photos are two examples of people being photographed in possibly embarrassing situations)Arguments suggesting Google Street View is not a threat to privacy
1. Google have blurred faces and license plate numbers
In response to privacy concerns, Google pledged to blur faces and car licence plates. Google announced its face blurring technology in May, 2008. The technology uses a computer algorithm to scour Google's image database for faces, then blurs them.
John Hanke, head of Google Maps and Google Earth has stated, 'It's a legitimate issue. It needs that debate. We see that and try to let it play out.'
The face-blurring technology took a year to develop and is based on prior research that took several more years.
Face detection, which humans perform effortlessly with help from some dedicated neurons in the visual cortex, is a decades-old computer science problem. It is finally arriving in basic form in real-world applications, though, including digital cameras that use it to track and properly expose subjects or take a picture only when subjects are smiling.
There are some potential complications for Google Street View, though. False positives that blur billboards or works of art with faces could degrade Street View a bit, but missing some faces that are visible could pose privacy problems. Google believes its technology has struck the right technology balance in general.
Google has requested that users of Street View notify it of any faces that have not been blurred so that they can be obscured.
2. Google will remove any images or locations on request
Google has a provision in Street View for anyone to request that an image or a location be removed.
Originally, the company said only people who identified themselves could ask the company to remove their image.
But Google changed that policy, partly in response to criticism, and now anyone can alert the company and have an image of a license plate or a recognisable face removed, not just the owner of the face or car..
Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google, has stated, 'It's a good policy for users and also clarifies the intent of the product ... We looked at it and we thought that's really silly because that's not the point of this product. The purpose is to show what the stores look like, what houses look like. If someone says, "Hey, there's a face here" ... it doesn't matter whose face it is.'
Mayer further noted, 'We've evolved our policy there to be such that (when) a person's face is seen or a license plate is seen ... when we're alerted to those we are actually taking the panoramas down and blurring the faces and blurring the license plates and then restoring them.'
To request a recognisable face to be removed it is enough to click on the 'Street View Help' link at the top right of a photograph, and select 'Report inappropriate image'. The same is true for license plates in Street View and for properties on private roads or other properties with privacy or security concerns.
Unlike a change in a wiki this removal of a face can not be undone by the next user who wants to get a clear view.
3. The photographs Google takes are of actions already occurring in public
It has repeatedly been claimed that nothing Google Street View cars photograph can be genuinely private as it is all already happening under the public gaze. Therefore, claims that these images violate privacy or put property or children at risk seem either inaccurate or exaggerated.
Responding to the suggestion that Google Street View somehow increased the risk of children being attacked by paedophiles CBS news tech analyst Larry Magid noted that no image of children displayed on Street View was not already public as the children's behaviour was already occurring in public.
Magid stated, 'It's not as if you need the Internet to find parks, schools and homes where children live and play. There are schools, parks and homes with bedroom windows in just about every neighborhood. And, statistically, the vast majority of predators know their targets anyway - in real life, not online.
Instead of banning Google Street View, maybe we should put up walls between streets and sidewalks so that predators can't see children walking home from school. And while we're at it, let's ban public outdoor parks and recreation areas or at least find ways to hide the children playing there. Or just keep children away from churches, schools and other places where pedophiles have been known to operate.'
The point Magid makes is that much of our life is already and rightly public. Street View records this but is not responsible for it and such recordings cannot be a violation of privacy as the behaviour being photographed is not private.
4. Google street view performs a range of valuable functions
Street View integrates with other Google Maps services to give driving directions and other detailed location assistance. Using Street View in conjunction with Google Maps makes it possible to map out a route to a given location and view landmarks and the destination itself prior to arrival.
It enables the user to search and map specific businesses or domestic locations in a neighbourhood and to use these detailed images in conjunction with the satellite views on Google Earth.
As indicated in an article published in The West Australian newspaper on August 5, 2008, 'It can give drivers images of intersections to go with their driving directions and enable prospective homebuyers to view the streets surrounding a property for sale. Cafe and restaurant goers can determine if a venue they have in mind has al fresco dining.
Business owners can take things further and download free images of their properties and other information, for use on their own websites.
Google Maps creator, Lars Rasmussen, says Street View has many applications for business, government and for rescue services when natural disasters strike. "Our ambition is, of course, to be a world map - we're almost halfway there," Mr Rasmussen said at Google's offices in Sydney. "With Street View, it adds a whole new dimension."
Tourism Australia, the Real Estate Institute of Australia and the Australian Geography Teachers Association have all praised the new technology.'
Defenders of Street View claim that the public service the system represents far outweighs any potential intrusions into privacy. Street View is a navigation tool, it defenders claim. It is a means of assisting people decide on and arrive at a range of destinations. It is not a tool intended to spy on others.
A spokesperson for the French embassy has stated, 'A just balance needs to be found between what can be publicized, in deference to the principles of freedom of expression and of information, and what has to be safeguarded from excessive public curiosity, so as to avoid infringing the individual's right to privacy and right to his or her picture.'
5. Nothing Google Street View records could not already be recorded in a number of other ways
Google and its defenders have claimed that we now live in a world where complete privacy no longer exists. There are so many ways in which people's images can be recorded and placed in a public forum. For example, camera equipped mobile phones are in genral use and these can take images which can then be posted on the Internet and in the manner of any Internet image (including those posted by Google Street View) can be copied and reproduced on other sites.
In April 2008 a Pennsylvania couple sued Google for posting pictures of their home on Google Street View. The couple filed a case claiming that one of Google's vehicles which photographs urban areas using a digital camera mounted on the roof took photos of their house by driving up a road clearly marked 'Private Property'.
In July 2008 Google filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, and in defending Street View, it cited the Restatement of Torts, a legal guideline from the American Law Institute: 'Complete privacy does not exist in this world except in a desert, and anyone who is not a hermit must expect and endure the ordinary incidents of the community life of which he is a part,' the Restatement of Torts states.
Google further claimed, 'Today's satellite-image technology means that even in today's desert, complete privacy does not exist.'
Similarly, at a technology industry lunch in May, 2008, Google Internet pioneer, Vint Cerf, stated. 'nothing you do ever goes away and nothing you do ever escapes notice ... there isn't any privacy, get over it.'