Google Earh Streetview

[Red_Rattler]

Since many people have looked at their own front doors on SV this week, and seen the level of detail, I did wonder if there might be some privacy issues here.

Yes possibly. I can see why people might get the hump about somebody using their house in a model, but I think any case brought to court would be rejected for wasting time.

Not in Australia.

** The following is for Australia ONLY **​

See: http://blogs.smh.com.au/photographers/archives/2007/02/photography_is_not_a_crime.html

Full article in above link

LEGAL: In Australia, in public, photography is legal (for now) and consent does not need to be obtained for those people being photographed. Even taking a picture over someone's fence is OK. Go on, try it... Do it every day though and it will become stalking...

Councils have tried to ban photography (unsuccessfully) and the Commonwealth government reviewed all aspects of 'unauthorised' photography in 2005 (discussion paper - 296Kb PDF). The Coffs Harbour Eisteddfod Society was so afraid of breaching child protection laws it banned parents from photographing the performances featuring their children. Whether it had the right to do so was never tested.

Basically though, if you are on public property, you can shoot it*. Public property and publicly accessible places are two different things. Train stations and beaches are public property, the QVB and Westfields aren't.

PRIVACY: "A person, in our society, does not have a right not to be photographed." So stated Justice John Dowd in a 2001 case (R v Sotheren) in the NSW Supreme Court. In Australia there is no right to privacy. If you don't want to be photographed sun-baking topless on a beach then don't sun-bake topless on a beach. Oops! You did it again? You got out of a car after forgetting to don some undies and now your genitals are all over the internet? That's your problem, or one of them at least.

Indeed, if you don't want to be photographed then you should think twice about leaving your home. If you go to a shopping centre, service station, train station, carpark, office block (your office block) then you are probably being photographed. Stuck in traffic? Your on RTA-cam. Have you ever asked yourself who controls the footage? What policies are in place regarding its use? Are the people who have access to it screened? How secure are the systems? It's easy to whip up fear around photography, but the worst is perpetrated by a very small minority.

About Street View quality: Too many Street View posts in the linked forum to find out, but I think the better question would be: Since Street View is just a reasonable recent addition, why did Google choose to use low-quality camera's in the first place, when higher-quality cameras would have been available.

 

[nbrettoner]

Not in Australia.

** The following is for Australia ONLY **​

See: http://blogs.smh.com.au/photographers/archives/2007/02/photography_is_not_a_crime.html

Full article in above link



About Street View quality: To many Street View posts in the linked forum to find out, but I think the better question would be: Since Street View is just a reasonable recent addition, why did Google choose to use low-quality camera's in the first place, when higher-quality cameras would have been available.

I think at the time of muting the Streetscape idea, Google came under fire regarding privacy issues. So as to 'smooth the waters', with the earlier low-resolution imagery you will notice areas of blurriness. I have even come across a church location in New Zealand where the road out the front had nothing but black, for about 100 metres either side & in front of that location.
I have also spotted one or two locations where you can see a street sign from one camera location, but it's wiped from another camera location's view.
Google also agreed that if anyone contacted them that they would delete anyone's image/sign-age on request.

However currently the above seems to have been relaxed somewhat.

BTW one of our members (Craig Carr; Seeseeme) has actually spotted a GE camera car in his region, & took pics of it.

 

[Red_Rattler]

I think at the time of muting the Streetscape idea, Google came under fire regarding privacy issues. So as to 'smooth the waters', with the earlier low-resolution imagery you will notice areas of blurriness.

I wasn't talking about the bluring of certain images, as that would/will happen with any quality camera. Would it not have saved Google the expense of two camera types if they used a higher quality camera from the start?

 

[Two99Point80]

Would it not have saved Google the expense of two camera types if they used a higher quality camera from the start?

Sure, but hindsight is always 20/20 (my apologies if that saying references yet another archaic measurement system which everyone but we in the US have long since evolved beyond)

 

[airtime]

Streetview in the UK is great, I was on it most of last night, I did notice peoples faces were blured out, along with car registration numbers, I know it's illeagal to take photographs or pictures of children in the street in the UK, even taking a photo of your own child outside in the street can be construed as against the law under the peadofilia act of European law as you might catch other children within your picture.

I love streetview UK, even though I have found areas that are not covered but a lot of the UK is, there are also moments when you ask too much and the whole screen blurs out, going out of streetview and back in usually works.

Great find and happy google have taken this on, I use bing maps just to get the right look from above.

Joe Airtime

 

[Tokkyu40]

What you mean Google couldn't afford a decent camera a year and a half ago?

That's probably a bandwidth and storage problem. A year and a half is old school technology, you know. Practically stone age.

...it's illegal to take photographs or pictures of children in the street in the UK, even taking a photo of your own child outside in the street can be construed as against the law under the peadofilia act of European law as you might catch other children within your picture...

Oh, the joys of modern paranoia. And some worry that we'll run out of stupidity some day.

Claude

 

[lewisner]

"Oh, the joys of modern paranoia. And some worry that we'll run out of stupidity some day."

Well if we (the UK) do, we can always import some from another country as when we imported Political Correctness from the USA.
The trouble is, when this nonsense comes at us like a tsunami we simply lie down and accept it instead of resisting