Privacy – The Google Way

Google Street View has helped me out numerous times when trying to get a clear idea of what the surrounding area actually looks like when traveling to a new location. Reflecting back on maps.google.com's history, it has matured from just being able to see (1) the streets, then (2) satellite imagery, then (3) terrain, then (4) traffic flow, and now (5) the static street view. The whole product itself is a prime example of Web 2.0 at its best. (I do wonder if we'll ever get to the point where Google Maps will mature from static street views to live real-time views.)

While all of these maps and imagery advancements are fantastic capabilities for the inquiring traveler, Google Map's images have also raised privacy concerns. Some of Google Map's static images included clear pictures of people's faces, car license plates, private roads, and other questionable images which raised privacy concerns with the public.

Fortunately, Google has respond and allows users to request to have the images removed. See this link for more details.

However, in other cases about Google Map's privacy issues, Google has prevailed. Google has recently won privacy suits against it for taking images of roads and houses marked with "private" signs. The most interesting comment from Google about this topic is the following quote (from the above link):
'"Today's satellite-image technology means that...complete privacy does not exist," '
With the ruling and Google's above comment, a user can take the necessary precautions to avoid putting private, semi-private, or even public information about themselves on social networking and internet community sites, but must remember that in the Web 2.0 world, satellite imagery is another privacy vector that needs attention.

It is also worthy to note that the privacy laws in other countries are different and more stringent than those in the US and Google needs to be cognizant of the necessary changes needed to ensure compliance. While the access to Web content seamlessly cross countries, continents, and oceans, it is interesting to see how country specific privacy laws can help to placate regionally specific privacy officials.

On a positive note, though, Google has responded to the community's complaints and started to incorporate selective area image blurring technology to help conceal the identity of people and cars that appear on its Street View images.