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2008/23: Is Google Street View a threat to privacy?<BR>

2008/23: Is Google Street View a threat to privacy?

What they said...
'Today's satellite image technology means that even in today's desert, complete privacy does not exist'
Google's response to a lawsuit brought against it by a US couple claiming Street View had invaded their privacy

'At Google, we take our users' privacy very seriously'
Google product manager Andrew Foster, on the Google Australia blog

The issue at a glance
Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides 360ø panoramic street-level views and allows users to view parts of selected cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas at ground level.
When it was launched on May 25, 2007, only five American cities were included. It has since expanded to thousands of locations in the United States, France, Italy, Australia and Japan.
Google Street View was released in Australia on August 5, 2008.
Wherever Street View has been released privacy concerns have been raised. Google has made a number of modifications to the service in response to these concerns. However, the issue has not disappeared.

Background
(The information below is largely drawn from Wikipedia's entry on Street View. The full text of this article can be read at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View)
Google Street View displays photos that were previously taken by a camera mounted on a car, and can be navigated using either the arrow keys on the keyboard or by using a mouse to click on arrows displayed on the screen. Using these devices, the photos can be viewed in different sizes, from any direction, and from a variety of angles. Lines that are displayed along the street that is shown indicate the direction followed by that street view camera car.
Google Street View was first introduced in the United States on May 25, 2007, and currently features 58 camera icon markers on the U.S. map, each representing at least one major U.S. city or area (such as a park), and usually the other nearby cities, towns, suburbs, and parks. Additionally, many major U.S. cities now have street view coverage without an icon. In all, with the extensions now reaching quite far beyond these major cities, views can now be seen in parts of all but six U.S. states (Hawaii, Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia).
On July 2, 2008, Google Street View was introduced in France and Italy, providing the first service outside the United States. On this day, 19 camera icons were added, mostly showing small towns and areas along the Tour de France route and part of north western Italy
On August 5, 2008, Australia and Japan were added to Google Street View. On this day, 28 icons were added, featuring major metropolitan areas of Japan as well as the bulk of Australia. Included in the update were approximately 40 new U.S. hub cities.

Privacy concerns
Privacy advocates have objected to Google Street View. Images have been reproduced of men leaving strip clubs, protesters at an abortion clinic, sunbathers in bikinis and males picking up prostitutes . In addition, people engaging in private activities within their own homes that were visible from public property have also been photographed.
Before launching the service, Google removed photos of domestic violence shelters, and allows users to flag inappropriate or sensitive imagery for Google to review and remove. Under increasing demand and in response to privacy concerns, Google has streamlined the process whereby images can be flagged and then removed from Google Street View.
In Europe, the creation of Google Street View may not be legal in all places. While the laws vary from country to country, many countries in Europe have laws prohibiting the filming of an individual on public property for the purpose of public display without that person's expressed consent.
One of Google's remedies to the concerns over privacy laws outside the United States has been a pledge to blur faces of people who are filmed. Google began blurring faces on 13 May 2008. Most of the images published since then, including the first launch of images in Europe on 2 June 2008, have had the faces blurred.
In 2007, Google pledged not to identify faces or number plates in Australia. However, as of August 2008, it was still possible to view both.
Google has delayed the release of its street views of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area out of concern from the United States Department of Homeland Security that some of the images taken may be of security-sensitive areas.
The Pentagon has banned Google from publishing Street View content of U.S. military bases and asked Google to remove existing content of bases (to which Google has complied).
Aaron and Christine Boring, a Pittsburgh couple sued Google for "invasion of privacy". They claimed that Street View made a photo of their home available online, and it diminished the value of their house, which was purchased for its privacy.
Some cities in the United States where all streets are privately owned have asked Google to remove Street View images because their consent was not given.

Internet information
Note to Victorian students and teachers: this issue bridges the 2008/2009 VCE issues period as some of the Internet media coverage cited is from before September 1, 2008 and some is from after. The first six Internet sources given here are post September 1, 2008 and therefore suitable for use by VCE students as 2009 sources. Four of these articles orginated in Australia; the other two form the United States. Please check with your teacher whether the American material can be used.

On September 1, 2008, ZDNet Australia published an article titled, 'Google defends privacy credentials'. The piece details Google's attempt to defend its privacy credentials following a claim by Microsoft's privacy chief last week that the search giant was a decade behind Microsoft when it came to privacy. The full text of the article can be found at http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Google-defends-privacy-credentials/0,130061744,339291721,00.htm

On September 1, 2008, the Australian online search directory TrueLocal issued a media release titled,'TrueLocal launches virtual maps with Google Street View'
The article claims that the online search directory has become the first search directory to adopt the Google Street View technology and one of the first websites to do so in Australia. The piece promotes the value of Street View. It can be read in full at http://www.newsdigitalmedia.com.au/files/media_releases/TrueLocal%20introduces%20new%20Google%20Street%20View.pdf

On September 10, 2008, PR Newswire, United Business Media, published an article outlining the position being taken by a variety of groups in the United States which consider Google Street View a risk to child safety. The piece is titled, ' Campaign to Highlight Child Safety Concerns Over Google's 'Street View' Gains Momentum' The full text can be found at http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/09-10-2008/0004882655&EDATE=

On September 19, 2008, the Australian Internet site Webdiary Patron Power published an opinion piece from a Sydney University Journalism Masters student, Larissa Varela, titled 'Google Street View: Bloody unreal!' The piece defends Google Street View against claims that it is an invasion of privacy. The full text of the piece can be found at http://webdiary.com.au/cms/?q=node/2518
The article is followed by over twenty reader comments.

On September 24, 2008, CBS News published an opinion piece by Larry Magid, in which he challenges the claim that Google Street View assists paedophiles target their victims. The piece is titled 'Google Street View a Child safety Threat?'. The full text can be read at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/24/scitech/pcanswer/main4476827.shtml

On September 26, 2008, CNR Australia posted on its Internet site an opinion piece by Matthew Powell titled, 'Warning: Google knows the street where you live'. The article suggests that fears about the invasion of privacy are exaggerated. The full text of the article can be read at http://www.crn.com.au/Feature/5003,warning-google-knows-the-street-where-you-live.aspx

In April 2008 the Australian Privacy Foundation issued a statement indicating its position on Google Street View. The full text of this statement can be read at http://www.privacy.org.au/Papers/StreetView-0804.html

On July 12, 2008, the British newspaper The Sun published an article by a former burglar detailing how Google Street View could assist thieves. The article is titled, 'Google view is good for thieves'. The full text can be read at http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1414121.ece

Arguments suggesting Google Street View is a threat to privacy
1. People can be photographed in embarrassing or compromising situations
The vice president of Liberty Victoria, Anne O'Rourke, has claimed that Street View raises serious privacy concerns and has called for tougher regulations.
'Google Earth allows for all sorts of surveillance of citizens and is being used without any regard for privacy. It's time we set strict limits on government bodies and private organisations,' Ms O'Rourke has stated. 'There are people who walk around in their underpants or sunbake in the nude and they should have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their own backyards.'
Street View has published pictures of men entering brothels, of women sun baking in bikinis, of one Australian man sleeping on a nature strip after attending the funeral of a friend. The Google Street View team in Australia also took a photograph of a house burning down which they then posted on the Street View site for that area. These various photographs have all been condemned as at the least inappropriate and at the worst as violations of individual privacy.
It has been claimed that the taking of these images and then their posting on the Internet raises doubts about the sensitivity and the judgement of those managing Street View.
The Australian Privacy Foundation included the following in a statement it issued in relation to Google Street View in April, 2008, 'People have a legitimate expectation of a degree of privacy in public places. There is a difference between being seen doing something in public, and have a camera capture that act. For example, while a person might be comfortable walking home from the beach wearing a bikini, that same person may not necessarily consent to a photograph of her doing so even being taken, let alone being made available on the Internet.'

2. Properties and vehicles can be checked out by potential thieves
In an article published in the British newspaper The Sun on April 12, 2008, an ex-burglar, Richard Taylor, who fronted the BBC television show 'To Catch A Thief', has explained why criminals will be assisted by Google's Street View.
Mr Taylor has stated, 'This is nothing less than a burglars' paradise. Anyone who wants to burgle your house will be able to plan everything on their laptop at home in the evening.
The Internet is already a wonderful tool for criminals... But now Google Street View will make the Internet many times more useful to burglars and, thanks to 3G technology, people will be able to get it on their mobile phones.
The big thing when I was planning a burglary was working out how to get away. If the police turned up on foot or by car I wanted to know how I was going to escape before the helicopter arrived.
Basically, you knew if the police helicopter got there before you got away, there was a 90 per cent chance of being caught.
Street View will also be great for those who steal cars on demand. Those in the loop know there's a list of high-powered sports vehicles and other cars in demand. Street View will show thieves where such cars are parked overnight and give them a good idea of what sorts of locks, on gates etc, they need to deal with.
There are people who travel the country selling info to burglars. Street View will help give them more information.
If I were planning a burglary, Street View is the first tool I would use. You cannot overestimate how big this will be for criminals.'

3. Paedophiles can identify potential targets
It has been claimed that Google Street View can supply information which could be used by paedophiles in the targeting and accessing of children whom they might then abuse. A United States pressure group titled 'Stop Internet Predators' issued a press release which states, ''Street View' application allows anyone to view high resolution images of homes and schools, images that in some cases include children playing outside. Many times parents are unaware such applications exist and are therefore unable to protect their families accordingly.
Although images are not live, Google Street View can memorialize a minor's photograph in association with a physical address without parental consent for all on the Internet to see. Stop Internet Predators urges parents to call for a ban on Street View in their communities until the technology is safeguarded to protect their children's privacy.'
Van Luchene, an American who lost his brother to a violent sexual predator, is the founder of Ryan United, a non-profit organisation dedicated to keeping children safe from sexual predators.
Mr Van Luchene has stated, 'Applications like "Street View" make it too easy for anyone to track how to get to our children before they even walk out their front door. We must be proactive and ensure that all possible safeguards are implemented on these alarming online applications.'
On September 10, 2008, Stop Internet Predators announced that over a dozen national and state advocacy groups within the United States had joined their effort to increase awareness of emerging Internet technologies that can endanger our children's safety and privacy.

4. Employers and other authorities are given excessive access to people's lives
It has been noted, for example, that city councils could use Street View to check for council by-law and building regulation breaches. In an article published in The age on September 24, 2008, it was claimed, 'Several Victorian councils using Google Earth and Google Street View to identify illegal building activity and breaches of local government laws.
City of Yarra building surveyor Dan Curlis said Google Earth had "added another arrow to the quiver" in the battle against unauthorised home renovations.
"I've searched my own property with Google Earth and you can tell if the rubbish bins are on the front nature strip," Mr Curlis said. "The clarity of these images is improving all the time and we can zoom into a backyard and pick up some really interesting detail."'
Though there are those who say that the only people who need to be concerned are those who have done the wrong thing, there are others who claim that this level of observation is unreasonable and has the capacity to effectively allow council officers and others to harass people who have committed very minor infringements of by-laws or other regulations.
The US National Legal and Policy Centre (NLCP) has released a dossier of information about an unnamed Google executive - later revealed to be co-founder Larry Page - including his address and route to work, using information compiled only from Street View images in 30 minutes. The NLPC took this action to demonstrate the ease with which Street View information could be used to compromise the provacy and security of ordinary people.
'Perhaps in Google's world, privacy does not exist, but in the real world individual privacy is fundamentally important and is being chipped away bit by bit every day by companies like Google,' NLPC chairman Ken Boehm said.

5. Images can be stored, copied and transmitted in other forms
It has been claimed that the problem is larger than potentially embarrassing images occurring inadvertently on Street View. There are those who deliberately browse through Street View in serach of such images and then copy them and post them elsewhere. One of the difficulties with prvacy and the Internet is that once an image has been posted it may not be possible to ever either withdraw it or control when or where it will subsequently be used.
Sensitive images from the United States including one of a woman exposing her G-string, another of a man striding into an adult bookshop and yet another man apparently relieving himself have been copied and spread across the Internet. Though they have now been removed from Street View it is far more difficult to remove them from the other sites on which they now occur.
It has been claimed that Google Maps has given rise to entire communities of armchair explorers who share interesting, entertaining potentially embarrassing discoveries

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.'

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.

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