June 2, 2008 at 22:20Minnesota says Google decisively "no"!
The town of North Oaks (MN), the symbol and stronghold of the Midwestern United States, God bless him, defended his right to identity in the era of computer lawlessness. Photos of this suburb of Minnesota's capital, consisting of 1,500 private households, a fully-fledged private golf course, and several scenic private hills and lakes, have recently hit Google Street View. And if the residents of New York or Boston, who accidentally find themselves in virtual copies of their cities, only hope to shake the money out of the Internet giant for violating the sanctity of privacy, then the proud Nortoxians did not put up with arbitrariness. The collective requirement to erase the views of the town from the base was fulfilled by Google without any reservations.
They can, we can not
Moreover, the case with North Oaks forced the company to once again state that work is underway on an addition to the service engine, which will automatically “gloss over” the faces of people caught in the frame. The need for this is difficult to deny: while in the USA the likelihood of mass lawsuits against Google for such “misconduct” is still quite small, then in Europe, where the service will also soon get, laws often explicitly prohibit the publication of photographs of citizens somewhere without their written permission.
However, at the same time, Google recently confirmed the fact that Street View cars, in addition to filming streets with digital cameras, also make up a 3D impression of the urban landscape using laser scanning equipment. But we trust Big G, don't we?
They can, we can not
Moreover, the case with North Oaks forced the company to once again state that work is underway on an addition to the service engine, which will automatically “gloss over” the faces of people caught in the frame. The need for this is difficult to deny: while in the USA the likelihood of mass lawsuits against Google for such “misconduct” is still quite small, then in Europe, where the service will also soon get, laws often explicitly prohibit the publication of photographs of citizens somewhere without their written permission.
However, at the same time, Google recently confirmed the fact that Street View cars, in addition to filming streets with digital cameras, also make up a 3D impression of the urban landscape using laser scanning equipment. But we trust Big G, don't we?