February 19, 2009 at 13:58Court agrees with Google that privacy does not exist
A family from Pittsburgh, who dared to challenge Google’s “all-seeing eye,” to photograph their private property and put it publicly visible through Google Maps , was defeated in court.
The lawsuit was filed in April 2008 and attracted widespread attention because it called into question the fundamental right of Google cars to enter private territory and take pictures of everything. In this case, they stopped by the “private road” sign and photographed the house in detail, although in reality no one has the right to call in there. In a lawsuit for $ 25,000, a family from Pittsburgh argued that photographing a house on the Internet caused them serious “emotional distress” and adversely affected the market value of the house. Apparently, the photos turned out to be unsuccessful, and this is understandable - after all, the robot photographed (that is, an automatic panoramic camera with 11 lenses ).
However, Google’s position was that privacy cannot exist in the era of aerial and satellite imagery.“There is no absolute privacy ,” Google said bluntly in an official comment.
The District Court of Western Pennsylvania issued a verdict (PDF) in which it acquitted Google on all counts. Worse, after this trial, the family from Pittsburgh will suffer even greater losses, because now their address and surname are also publicly available, and photos of the notorious “secret” house were posted directly on the website of the government department.
via Digital Media
The lawsuit was filed in April 2008 and attracted widespread attention because it called into question the fundamental right of Google cars to enter private territory and take pictures of everything. In this case, they stopped by the “private road” sign and photographed the house in detail, although in reality no one has the right to call in there. In a lawsuit for $ 25,000, a family from Pittsburgh argued that photographing a house on the Internet caused them serious “emotional distress” and adversely affected the market value of the house. Apparently, the photos turned out to be unsuccessful, and this is understandable - after all, the robot photographed (that is, an automatic panoramic camera with 11 lenses ).
However, Google’s position was that privacy cannot exist in the era of aerial and satellite imagery.“There is no absolute privacy ,” Google said bluntly in an official comment.
The District Court of Western Pennsylvania issued a verdict (PDF) in which it acquitted Google on all counts. Worse, after this trial, the family from Pittsburgh will suffer even greater losses, because now their address and surname are also publicly available, and photos of the notorious “secret” house were posted directly on the website of the government department.
via Digital Media