Right: a website ran this image, allegedly of a dog caught at an awkward moment by the "google car". However, in an age of digital retouching, at least some of the "google" images presented as genuine may be counterfeit.Further implications
Google Street View has obvious practical implications as a navigation tool and as a way of discovering in advance information about locations the viewer has yet to visit. Google has been at pains to stress that the purpose of the service is not to intrude on the privacy of others. The various modifications that Google has made to this service designed to reduce the intrusions on privacy that it represents have gone a significant way toward allaying popular concerns.However, it seems untrue to claim that Street View does no more than record what is already public. The very fact of recording and storing human behaviour alters the nature of a public act. An act that is performed in public is generally transient. It happens and then is usually recalled in the memory only of those who were present.
Where an image is taken of than behaviour the nature of its public exposure changes in that it is now available not just to those who witnessed it but to others and it will not fade with the memory of the original witnesses.
The type of record that Google Street View creates prompts additional concerns. The issue is not just the enduring nature of the record; the other feature that causes concern is that these images are so readily accessible. The images Google Street View create can literally be viewed by virtually by anyone anywhere. This to dramatically shifts the nature of what is regarded as the public sphere.
However, as a number of commentators have noted the genie is truly out of the bottle. The challenges to privacy that Google Street View represents are also posed by a range of other technological developments from the widespread use of surveillance cameras through to the ubiquitous camera-equipped mobile phone. It seems true to say that no one can any longer rely on being unobserved and unrecorded in any public place and beyond that, no one can any longer assume that their public actions may not be viewed by just about anyone.