[privacy] Google's detailed streetscapes raise privacy concerns

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=9e53df0f-3211-4cde-837
c-90a6bb4d561d
<http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=9e53df0f-3211-4cde-83
7c-90a6bb4d561d&k=49986> &k=49986

Google's detailed streetscapes raise privacy concerns


Carly Weeks, CanWest News Service

Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007

OTTAWA -- Canada's Privacy Commissioner has raised concerns over a new
Google program that lets users view and zoom in on street-level photographs
that are so clear and precise, they can pinpoint an unknowing bystander and
their exact location with the click of a mouse button.

Google's new Street View application uses photographs captured at an earlier
date to let computer users navigate through city streets and neighbourhoods
in major cities quickly and easily. 

But the program, which relies on pictures taken without the knowledge or
consent of people in them, seems to violate many basic rights of citizens
and poses a serious threat to personal privacy, according to Jennifer
Stoddart.

Pictures available on the Street View application -- which so far only shows
images of U.S. cities -- showcase the embarrassing to the mundane. From a
man waiting for the bus to a person coming out of a pornography shop, all of
the images can be quickly and easily accessed just by going online. Numerous
Web sites have already popped up to allow users to post funny or
embarrassing photographs of people and places spotted using the Street View
application. 

Although the program only focuses on the United States at this point, Google
is eager to expand the service. "We're focused on making this service
available in as many cities as possible," Google spokeswoman Wendy Rozeluk
wrote an in e-mail. "We will be adding Street View imagery for new cities on
an ongoing basis."

The program's potential risks have prompted the privacy commissioner to send
letters this week to Google -- and the Canadian company that has been
providing some of the photographs -- outlining her concerns and seeking an
explanation over whether sufficient precautions and safeguards are in place
to protect privacy.

...

 

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