Canadian ‘Google Maps’ privacy fears
p2pnet news | Freedom:- “All this time I thought ‘googling yourself’ meant the other thing,” says Marge Simpson. Then she checks out her home on Google Maps, switches to satellite view and zooms in on Homer lying naked in a hammock.
Funny?
Calfornia apartment block manager Mary Kalin-Casey and her husband, John, were, “a bit shaken” when they used Google’s Street View.
She’d pulled up a street-level view of her building and as she zoomed in, saw Monty, her cat, sitting on a perch in the living room window.
“The issue that I have ultimately is about where you draw the line between taking public photos and zooming in on people’s lives,” the New York Times had Kalin-Casey saying, adding, “The next step might be seeing books on my shelf. If the government was doing this, people would be outraged.”
Jennifer Stoddart, Canada’s privacy commissioner, might agree.
She’s raising concerns over the search engine’s new Street View web photo application, says the Canadian Press.
Street-level images Google is Offers online could break Canada’s privacy laws, she says, according to the story.
Street View isn’t yet available in Canada and Stoddart has written to Google, and Calgary’s Immersive Media, which helped develop the imagery technology, asking them to answer her concerns, it goes on.
“In particular, it does not appear to meet the basic requirements of knowledge, consent, and limited collection and use as set out in the legislation,” CP has Stoddart saying.
“Our Office considers images of individuals that are sufficiently clear to allow an individual to be identified to be personal information within the meaning of PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act),” she writes, going on:
“By the time individuals become aware that images relating to them are contained in Street View, their privacy rights may already have been affected.”
Also See:
a bit shaken – Google the Peeping Tom, June 2, 2007
New York Times – Google Zooms In Too Close for Some, May 31, 2007
Canadian Press – Google street pics could be illegal in Canada, privacy commissioner says, September 11, 2007
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September 12th, 2007 at 9:29 am
I’m a little frightened by Street View. You really can see right into people’s homes, see the make, model, and license plate number of cars outside people’s houses, see people’s faces as they walk out of strip clubs…
#1, Google is profiting off of pictures of people’s faces and private property. #2, they’re not asking permission. Some people argue that walking outside is akin to granting permission to be photographed. I disagree, at least in this case, because the photos are shared with the entire planet unbeknownst to the subject, plus Google profits directly from it.
In my opinion Google should use its Street View technology to improve the way buildings appear in Google Earth. Microsoft does something similar with high altitude aircraft with their new 3D Live Maps website and it looks astounding.
September 12th, 2007 at 9:43 am
google are only deliveriing the files, in other news it showed that immersive media, the canadian company, are the people who have filmed all of this and own the database of images and theyve already filmed most cities in canada. the united states has laws as well and general copyright laws that also apply. i aggree they need to get consent first.