Japanese Group Asks Google to Knock it Off
Yesterday I noticed an interesting article about a group of Japanese lawyers and professionals that has asked Google to stop violating people’s privacy with its Street View service. That got me thinking. As convenient and useful as it is, is Street View a violation of people’s basic privacy rights? Although the photos are not taken in real-time, it does seem to me that the service is getting eerily close to a ‘big brother’ type of thing.
A Japanese group of lawyers and professors thinks it is unacceptable and has asked Google to stop photographing Japan’s streets. The service, they say, is violating peoples’ privacy.
“We strongly suspect that what Google has been doing deeply violates a basic right that humans have,” Yasuhiko Tajima, a professor of constitutional law at Sophia University in Tokyo, told Reuters by telephone.
“It is necessary to warn society that an IT giant is openly violating privacy rights, which are important rights that the citizens have, through this service.”
What do you think? Is Google Street View violating privacy rights?
It is only a violation when it is in the residential areas. The downtown areas/airports/sports stadiums are all public areas. Its no different than the police walking in the street. They (police) have no right without a warrant on your property, but in the downtown area they do.
There are conflicting rights. Those of the photographer to take pictures, and those of the subjects to keep out of pictures.
From what I have seen of it’s use in the US, it doesn’t seem to really infringe on “privacy” because most people don’t do anything private in public places (where the photographs are taken). It does get creepy when you think a stalker could use the service to “watch” specific people.