Privacy Lawsuit over Google Streetview dismissed
Posted in Tech News on February 19th, 2009 by jeremy – 1 Comment
(one of the original “offending” images)
So for those of you who werent aware, Google got sued in May 2007 for its super cool streetview project. Of course like any dominate company Google gets sued all the time, though I found this one a bit interesting as it touches on privacy issues in an always on, location aware web world. As the Internet is in a major evolutionary step as we speak - moving from a sort of virtual world, to one that augments the real world - more and more real world privacy issues will come up.
In this case a couple in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania wanted $25,000 from Google because of the “mental suffering involved” when Google indexed pictures of their home (which is located on a private road), and made them available on Google maps and other apps for all to see (obviously without the couple’s permission). While I personally think the whole “I want 25k for mental suffering” bit is crazy, I also am sensitive to the fact that not everyone is comfortable with total physical transparency in the completely public virtual web world. And in that sense Google’s response to the claim that with “satellite technology complete privacy no longer exists” is a very non reassuring answer for a “do no evil” company (even the answer is true, legally speaking).
At any rate it seems there was little surprise in the case (even if it did drag on for awhile) as most legal tech experts figured it would get thrown out, and that’s exactly what the judge did. While, the legality of it is no longer in question it still remains to be seen how much we the consumers are willing to give up our own privacy for the sake of exciting technological advances.
I personally have mixed feelings. How about you?
Sources: cnet newtechnologydirectory ericgoldman corank