Google Finally Bows to Privacy Advocates and Agrees to Blur 'Street View' Faces in All 40 Cities
In response to a lengthy privacy backlash Google announced it will blur all faces in its Google Maps Street View service. Google says it will use facial recognition technology to identify faces within Street Views and blur them automatically. The process will start with New York City Street Views and then move on to the 39 other cities where Street Views is offered. The process is expected to take several months to complete.
Street View has had its critics right from the start when Google first rolled out the feature as part of Google Maps last year
A Short History of Google Street View Gripes
Street View had its critics right from the start. Less than a month after the service was launched, attorney Kevin Bankston discovered a Street View of himself smoking a cigarette outside the offices of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that fights for consumer privacy rights among other things.
Bankston was not too happy about this and viewed the Street View image of himself on Google as an invasion of his privacy. Enlisting the help of the EFF he lead the charge against Google showing faces on its Street View feature. It didn't take long for complaints to roll in after that from people who saw themselves seemingly immortalized on Google's services while they were walking down the street, sunbathing, leaving strip clubs, and engaged in other potentially embarrassing situations (you get the picture).
Some concessions were made on Google's behalf to cool privacy concerns. Google began offering a way for people to request their faces be blurred on Street Views. However, the process required you to submit to Google your legal name, email address, the address of your photograph on Street View, a sworn statement verifying your request, and a copy of your photo ID.
The gesture backfired when many complained those wanting to protect their privacy were having to forfeit it to do so. Google then modified the process to require just your name, the address of your Street View photo, and an acknowledgment that you are the person in the photo and you want it removed from Google Maps.
More recently Canada has been concerned about facial recognition in Street View for some time. The country's privacy commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, recently sent a letter to Google stating that the Google Maps feature may violate Canada's privacy laws.
Another objection came in the way of a Pennsylvania couple that wanted an image of their house removed from Street Views arguing Google Maps violated their privacy. Despite no faces were part of the picture, the couple decide to sue Google claiming Street Views "violated their privacy, devalued their property, and caused them mental suffering."
On Thursday Google faced even more scrutiny from Peter Hustinx, a privacy chief for the European Union, who urged Google to work with EU officials to ensure Street View does not violate European privacy laws. In France, for example, you cannot legally publish a photograph of someone without their consent.
This week Google finally threw in the towel. The Pennsylvania case is still pending. Can you blame Google?
Do you think Google did the right thing? Should it blur private houses as well?
CREDIT - PC World contributor Ian Paul
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Geez, people are cry babies. If you don't want to be seen in front of someplace, then don't be in front of someplace! None of the pictures shown are from vantages that would be normally available to anyone who desires to be in that vantage point. Taking picures in public has not and should not ever be a crime.
BigFree is quite right. If you don't want others to know about your "activities" then don't do `em in public. If you're ashamed of your "actions" curtail them; listen to your conscience. There is no expectation of privacy in a public place & hopefully never will be.
This is pathetic. Google Street View is a great thing that gives people the chance to view parts of the country they would otherwise not get a chance to see, yet there are people crying about their homes being shown and lobbying to get whole towns erased from street view. I think it's absolutely pathetic. I can care less about people being erased from street view, but when you start asking to get streets taken off, it ruins something that can expand knowledge.
This is pathetic. Google Street View is a great thing that gives people the chance to view parts of the country they would otherwise not get a chance to see, yet there are people crying about their homes being shown and lobbying to get whole towns erased from street view. I think it's absolutely pathetic. I can care less about people being erased from street view because I'm not going on it to look at faces, but when you start asking to get streets taken off, it ruins something that can expand knowledge.