Interesting Question: Does Google's Street-View Feature Violate People's Privacy When Private Homes are Photographed?

A lawsuit claims yes, Google says "there is no such thing as complete privacy.

I always just took this as a neat, ambitious and neat (did I say neat?) feature, but, honestly, it is sort of creepy to have your home available to thieves and perverts online, isn't it?

Or what if you're just a bit embarrassed by your home (the one here looks pretty downscale)?

I think Google's right legally, and practically too (you can't fight the future, or at least you can't beat the future), but it's interesting.

Thanks to Slublog.

Supposedly -- unless this has been debunked as a prank -- Google's snap-happy picture-takers have caught, and posted, crack deals in progress as their representative street views.

Hookers, too.

Posted by: Ace at 06:25 PM

Comments

1 Always wondered how they did this.

Posted by: Wilhelm Klink at July 30, 2008 06:34 PM (GGhvX)

2 You keep on 'doin' no evil', Google...

Posted by: ECM at July 30, 2008 06:46 PM (q3V+C)

No prank, probably.

I once saw a google streetview where you could see a guy breaking into a car with a slimjim.

Posted by: Entropy at July 30, 2008 07:07 PM (HgAV0)

4 The law's pretty solid on the "you can take a photograph as long as what you're photographing is in public view" side of things. Even the relatively recent tendency of some jurisdictions to try and outlaw taking pictures of bridges and the like would most likely fail under a real court challenge.

So yeah, they can drive down your street and take pictures of all of the houses, as long as they stay on public property (the street itself).

Posted by: cirby at July 30, 2008 07:37 PM (nYcsk)

5 There's a Google street view of a fire.

Posted by: DSkinner at July 30, 2008 08:05 PM (TOaf/)

No, it is not illegal. What can be legally viewed can be legally photographed. There is no Fourth Amendment protection for a house viewed from a public street; there is no protection for property viewed from public airspace.

No reasonable expectation of privacy involved, according to what I know of US Supreme Court Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.

Posted by: Mikey NTH at July 30, 2008 08:14 PM (TUWci)

For fun, get a quadrangle map and see how they are updated (as opposed to having surveyors actually start from the benchmarks. N.B. - do not remove those little bronze disks, even if they are on your property!)

http://topomaps.usgs.gov/

Posted by: Mikey NTH at July 30, 2008 08:18 PM (TUWci)

8 Privacy? No. Intellectual property? Now you might have something. Google is making money off pictures of my house, through advertising. I want a cut or you can't use my house. That's the approach that should be taken, not privacy.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at July 30, 2008 08:31 PM (0+Ggj)

9 "The law's pretty solid on the "you can take a photograph as long as what you're photographing is in public view" side of things."

Unless the pictures include trains, airplanes, or children. Then they are verbotten. Even if they are not.

Posted by: Larry Sheldon at July 30, 2008 08:38 PM (OmeRL)

10 For fun, get a quadrangle map and see how they are updated (as opposed to having surveyors actually start from the benchmarks.

Posted by: Mikey NTH at July 30, 2008 08:18 PM

Mikey: you have absolutely no clues about cartography, photogrammetry and surveying.

Just sayin.

Posted by: Tinian at July 30, 2008 09:14 PM (1Mq7K)

Tinian:

I'm not an expert, nor have I claimed to be one. So sod off.

Just have fun with public mapping. I think the USGS has a corner on that market. Officially.

And don't remove a corner post - bad things can happen if it is learned you've altered one of those. And everyone whose deed depends on that corner post is likely to be unhappy also.

Posted by: Mikey NTH at July 30, 2008 09:26 PM (TUWci)

12

I'm not an expert, nor have I claimed to be one. So sod off.

Just have fun with public mapping. I think the USGS has a corner on that market. Officially.

Ever hear of The Ordnance Survey?

Ordnance Survey has been subject to criticisms. Most criticism centres on the point that OS possesses a virtual government monopoly on geographic data in the UK,^[6] while, although a government agency, since 1999 it has been required to act as a Trading Fund or commercial entity.

Heh.

And don't remove a corner post - bad things can happen if it is learned you've altered one of those. And everyone whose deed depends on that corner post is likely to be unhappy also.

You got that part right.

And the bronze disks -- they aren't property markers. They are vertical or horizontal datums for geodesic surveying.

Posted by: Tinian at July 30, 2008 09:58 PM (1Mq7K)

13 I doubt it's illegal, but imagine all the fun when addresses and photos are matched (or as often mismatched) on online maps.

My workplace is three miles and across a freeway from where Google says it is. It's the size of a whole city block and has been there decades.

I've worked with a variety of map servers - found whole neighborhoods missing, rotated 90 degrees, roads on maps that never existed, etc.

Wait until a bunch of moonbats burn down your house because Karl Rove lives two miles away and Google screwed it up. It ain't the tool, it's the idiot - but the tool is still a force multiplier.

Posted by: Merovign at July 30, 2008 11:06 PM (UXoQt)

14 Privacy is one of those pesky Rights -- like Private Property -- that the Neo Fascists gotta get rid of to bring about the Neo Nirvana.

Posted by: Faye Kinnitt at July 31, 2008 12:06 AM (l1oyw)

15 I think the key here is "and make money off it" not publicity vs privacy. Obviously the exterior of your house isn't private, but someone making money off it? That's another story.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at July 31, 2008 12:33 AM (0+Ggj)

16 There is no Fourth Amendment protection for a house viewed from a public street; there is no protection for property viewed from public airspace.

And there's no government action implicating the Fourth Amendment when Google takes pictures.

Intellectual property? Now you might have something. Google is making money off pictures of my house, through advertising. I want a cut or you can't use my house. That's the approach that should be taken, not privacy.

Interesting idea, but whatever "intellectual property" rights might be there in your house probably belong to the architect who designed it, not you.

Posted by: Alex at July 31, 2008 11:36 AM (GmT4h)

17 I think you could make a case that the color of the house, the drapes, the lawn, the landscaping, the flag out front, etc all constitute your intellectual property - the architect is like the guy who built the stage you put a play on. The play is your property.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at July 31, 2008 11:56 AM (0+Ggj)

18 I think you could make a case that the color of the house, the drapes, the lawn, the landscaping, the flag out front, etc all constitute your intellectual property - the architect is like the guy who built the stage you put a play on. The play is your property.

Like I said, interesting -- I'm skeptical you'd get very far at the Copyright Office trying to get a registration, but who knows?

Posted by: Alex at July 31, 2008 12:16 PM (GmT4h)

Tinian, at #7 I said:

The bronze disks are the bench marks from which the entire map can be easily resurveyed! Where the heck did I ever say they were property markers?

Posted by: Mikey NTH at July 31, 2008 01:17 PM (O9Cc8)

20 I wouldn't try to do anything with the copyright office, I'd try to use it in court to stop Google, were I some hotshot lawyer with lots of cash. The privacy angle is just a dead end, its stupid.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at July 31, 2008 05:23 PM (0+Ggj)

The bronze disks are the bench marks from which the entire map can be easily resurveyed! Where the heck did I ever say they were property markers?

Posted by: Mikey NTH at July 31, 2008 01:17 PM (O9Cc

The maps weren't "surveyed" from those benchmarks. They were derived from stereo photographs. The benchmarks are used to determine, in part, where the mapped features belong in three dimensional space.

Also, you said: N.B. - do not remove those little bronze disks, even if they are on your property!)

Those little bronze disks, in America, are only placed on public property. I hope that helps.

Posted by: Tinian at July 31, 2008 10:40 PM (1Mq7K)

22 I wouldn't try to do anything with the copyright office, I'd try to use it in court to stop Google, were I some hotshot lawyer with lots of cash.

Without a registration, you wouldn't get very far in court. And this has been tried before (maybe not with the copyright angle): Barbara Streisand got her lawsuit tossed right the fuck out of court & had to pay the defendant's legal fees.

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