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Google Street View

Google logoYesterday, Google's Street View rolled out across the UK.

It's an impressive service and one can easily appreciate that there are many potentially beneficial uses. But for many, Google’s cameras – and the images they generate – are an upsetting invasion of privacy.

We’re never asked whether or not we’re comfortable with it coming to our street or even to our town.

"It's nothing you couldn't see walking along the street", the
company says, as if we all had panopticon eyes which permanently
recorded everything around us in glorious technicolour, for later review
at our leisure. In this time of catering for every conceivable minority interest, I suppose it's nice when a company does something for burglars.

When it arrives somewhere for the first time, those who are concerned
about being captured should check it to see if they or their property
are now on worldwide public view. They almost certainly are. We've been commenting on this all week and many have been in touch with us about their concerns. It ought to be easier for those who dislike the idea of being in perpetual public view to opt out. Particularly, I think that there is a generational disconnect in play here, with those most likely to be upset by Street View being those least likely to know how to go about how to get themselves off the site.

In this context, it was reassuring to receive from Google yesterday an undertaking that they will remove from the site the home of anyone who doesn't know how to use the internet but writes them a letter instead. (And it's pleasing that, unlike councils and national Government, Google at least cares enough about public opinion to enter into a dialogue with critics.)  Still, the burden's all on us to do something about it, having had our privacy infringed upon without notice or consent beforehand.

For those who do use the net and are troubled by this, we've published a step-by-step guide on opting out of Street View.

By Alex Deane

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Alex Deane Posted in Online privacy
  • http://angryexile.blogspot.com Angry Exile

    Had it here for a couple of years now and it’s not lost me even a nanosecond of sleep. Google stuck mostly to public roads, and owned up and pulled the images where they’d gone down private roads uninvited – the only genuine invasion of privacy. What’s the alternative? To prevent this would require the kind of law that would also legitimise the kind of harassment of photographers by police… and even that would still leave open the possibility of simply hiring a talented artist with a good memory to simply walk down the street and draw it all later unless you also ban looking at anything. If I’m not trespassing I can look, and if I can look I can record it even if only in my less than reliable brain. All Google have done is to use reliable technology and be systematic about it recording whole national road networks.

  • Derailed

    Agreed wtih ‘Angry Exile’.
    Big Brother Watch is going of the rails. You sound like paranoid complainers when you publish an article like this.
    How does Google have do with Big Brother national policies and a police state?
    I say don’t diverge into obscure slightly related topics. I thought your focus was stronger.

  • http://profile.typepad.com/alexdeane Alex Deane

    Fair comments (although I don’t think we’re “off the rails”!) – but we’re a broad church, guys… some things bother some people more than others…

  • Robably

    Agree with the other commentators.. I don’t really see the problem with Streetview. Its set of pictures of a moment captured in time, and I struggle to see any genuine privacy implications.
    Its not wrong to take pictures and associate them with a map.

  • Mishmash

    “Yesterday, Google’s Street View rolled out across the UK”
    Is this something new? Sounds like it but I’ve checked the pic of my place: same as before; what’s new?

  • NeverSurrender

    Hmm… I can’t see anything Street Viewish of my area at Google Maps. I know that Google have been round my way as the guy in their car told me to f**k off when I told him that he was not welcome in my street. Even before that happened I wouldn’t touch Google at the end of a long pole. Don’t trust them.

  • Redacted

    I suppose you either think Google is okay or you don’t. On the plus side they provide numerous services that are of use to a lot of poeple who either can’t, or don’t know how, to get them elsewhere. They have a few unique services too. But the price is that they gather a vast amount of data about Internet users’ habits and “monetize” it. What use will be made of that data in the fast-forwarding future no one can say.
    I don’t use Google much now. Google is more or less “dead to me”, and I would actually thank them if they returned the sentiment. Nowadays I have more focused ways to find what I am interested in.
    I won’t be looking at streetview to determine if there is anything untoward concerning me on it because a) there probably isn’t and b) how much of it would I have to look at before I was confident nothing objectionable was there? and c) everything I did while using streetview would be logged by Google, which strikes me as self-defeating.
    Still if anyone wants to look on my behalf, I live at Redacted Ave, Censoredham, 404notfound. If you spot me, I’m the redacted one wearing the redacted. Okay?
    I leave you alone now with this EFF article that predates the buzz fiasco
    http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/12/google-ceo-eric-schmidt-dismisses-privacy

  • Purlieu

    What could possibly go wrong
    … try this
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/12/giant_pliers/

  • NeverSurrender

    What a handy tool! I use it all the time to case houses, to see whether they have security or not, whether their windows are easily prised open e.t.c. This saves me hours by not having to do this on foot. Thanks to Google Earth my ‘earnings’ have gone up significantly. ;-)

  • Jules

    I was unconcerned until I see my expensive ornaments in plain view and my daughter’s toys in the garden – normally you can’t tell there is a small girl in the garden but the front gate happened to be open at the time. I’m not amused at that being up for all to see along with the address.

  • http://profile.typepad.com/alexdeane Alex Deane

    @Mishmash – it’s the first time that very large parts of the country has been covered by SV – you must live in one of the bits (like London) that’s been covered for a while.
    @Never Surrender / Jules – these are the sorts of concerns we’ve been seeing, like the girl caught naked on a family holiday (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1257622/Google-faces-storm-naked-child-Streetview.html). Google shoves masses of images into the public domain and then asks us to point out the errors, putting the burden on us rather than dealing with it themselves – as they should do; it’s their responsibility when they’re the ones putting the material online.
    Trawling so many images so quickly and without filtering is bound to lead to problems like the one on that link – it’s just one example and there will be tons of others.

  • http://profile.typepad.com/alexdeane Alex Deane

    Ahem excuse me, the *boy* – I misspoke.

  • MCL

    Keep the focus on govt activities – Google Street View isnt a threat to our personal liberties…
    This idea that it assists criminals case houses is equally silly. What next? It aids terrorists? Does that sound familiar? Where next? More censorship? More controls?
    Get some perspective!

  • nogoogle

    just to up date you guys google removed my home from google street view!

  • http://profile.typepad.com/alexdeane Alex Deane
  • http://profile.typepad.com/alexdeane Alex Deane

    I wonder what those who think we were wide of the mark now think, given the revelations about Street View cars capturing personal data including e-mails and so forth as they trundled around the country…

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    No neighborhood could build a perpetual constitution, as well just like a perpetual law.(Thomas Jefferson, the states president)