"Street View" -- Illegal Or Annoying?

Jun 12, 2007 3:06 PM

Google's Street View stunned many with its photos of the unsuspecting, from a man climbing a front gate to another walking out of a strip club, but it's hardly the first time the company has compiled a massive database of material that some would want to remain private -- and that raises security issues.

Street View is a map that allows users to zoom down to street level, viewing 360-degree panoramic photos and they stroll through town one mouse click at a time. Like so many technologies, it began as something useful for military purposes before people saw a more general use -- or potential abuse, say in the case of a criminal that might use it to choose a possible target.

But now with Google serving up images from the sky with Google Earth, creating street-level images with Street View and tracking customer behavior in cyberspace, some are starting to ask: how much is enough?

The snapshots range from the amazingly detailed to boringly mundane. It's a great tool for tourists or home-sick transplants, but privacy advocate Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told CBS News that Google is being too invasive.

"There are a lot of people on the Web who are, I think, freaked out by this -- they find it kind of icky and uncomfortable," says Bankston to CBS. "I don't think Google has done anything illegal here, but I do think they've done something that's exceptionally rude."

In a statement, Google says it "takes privacy very seriously" and acts "quickly to remove objectionable imagery."

At present, Google offers Street View maps only of selected parts of San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, New York City and Miami. These aren't real-time videos, they are still photos taken recently. Google plans to update them from time to time and, one assumes, to expand the offerings.

According to USA Today, the British activist group Privacy International released a scathing report that said the company is "hostile to privacy" and ranked it the lowest out of nearly two dozen major Web sites when it comes to privacy issues.

Google's Street View was singled out. "Techniques and technologies (are) frequently rolled out without adequate public consultation (e.g. Street level view)." Google also has a "track history of ignoring privacy concerns," the report says. "Every corporate announcement involves some new practice involving surveillance."

Nicole Wong, deputy general counsel who oversees privacy issues at Google, argues the report was inaccurate and misleading and complained Google didn't have a chance to respond to the criticisms.

"The allegations in the report misunderstood a number of our products," Wong told USA Today. "More importantly, when you look at the actual ranking, it misses the point on a lot of things we do very well."

There are those who are pleased with the new feature, because of the opportunity it gives them to check up on things. "You can really just walk down the street in New York," says Dean Burris, a former New Yorker now living in California. He told CBS News he can revisit his old neighborhood anytime he wants.

But some think it's like virtual voyeurism. According to the Scripps Howard News Service, blogs on Internet sites such as Wired.com, BoingBoing.net and Streetviewr.com are full of images from Street View revealing people in potentially embarrassing positions: Stanford University coeds sunbathing in bikinis, men leaving strip clubs, a man picking his nose.

Jay Evensen of the Deseret Morning News says that most people are on film several times a day through surveillance cameras in stores and traffic monitors mounted on street poles. Those images aren't readily available to the public, but they exist. He also says that there is nothing on Street View that you couldn't see for yourself if you really are strolling down those streets. But, he says, as you stroll down the street, you probably would have the decency not to stop and stare at sunbathers, zooming in on them from all sorts of angles.

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