Google Street View tests privacy limits

Comment

Google did announce that it would blur people's faces, and cars' license plate numbers, but is this enough from a privacy point of view?

The seal of approval that Google received last week to introduce its controversial street mapping application, Street View, into Israel, raised many questions. Perhaps not like in some countries that have already been burned by the application, but this is a legitimate discussion about where privacy ends and where technology begins.

Google's application does allow us to receive a 360° visual image of streets in large cities worldwide, which assists us in finding the street where we reserved a hotel in Barcelona or a popular café on Bogroshov St. However, on the other hand, there is the question of privacy. Should Google, which has been coping continuously since its establishment a decade ago with complaints of invasion of privacy, be allowed to photograph a man picking his nose in the middle of the street or a woman strolling on Fifth Avenue in New York with her lover?

The streets belong to all of us and are not owned by Google. On the other hand, we are still talking about public space and it is therefore difficult to argue that Google is invading into the depths of pedestrians' privacy. For example, if a man enters a sex shop in broad daylight -- anyone can see him doing so. Now he needs to take the chance that the Google application might document his actions and preserve them for all posterity. Google did announce that it would blur people's faces, as well as cars' license plate numbers, but is this enough from a privacy point of view?

This discussion would have looked different a decade ago, but over the last few years privacy boundaries have been stretched farther and farther and have become extremely elastic. If beforehand people would keep their pictures from their honeymoon in Thailand private, today we can see them in full view on Facebook.

Along with the technological capabilities that Google's street mapping application offers, the criticism it has received worldwide only enhances its problematic nature. Street View offers increased accessibility to those who wish to learn about new areas, however, human rights organizations will claim that this does not justify its existence.

And what about in Israel? The permit that the Israeli Law, Information and Technology Authority extended to Google last week to operate on the streets of Israel, followed an Internet survey specially prepared for the Israeli public. Granted only 5,000 people participated in the survey, but the vast majority (70%) advocated introducing the application to Israel. How will it ultimately be received by Israelis? We will need to wait and see how our streets are reflected through Google's lenses, and then decide.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 28, 2011

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011

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