Google Maps Street View invades privacy, exposes alien life

Filed under: Internet, Security, Web services, Google

Google Maps Street View invades privacy, exposes alien life

by Brad Linder May 30th 2007

That certainly didn't take long. Google launches a new "Street View" mode for Google Maps, showing thousands of streets up close and personal, and within 24 hours, users start to get a bit creeped out by just how close up those photos are.

BoingBoing reader Mary Kalin-Casey noticed that you can see in her apartment window. In fact, when you look into her living room, you'll see her cat peeking back at you. Of course, the first thing she did when she discovered this invasion of personal privacy was to email the link out to the world, so go figure.

But wait, that's not all. As one Gizmodo reader noticed, if you know where to look, you can also find what appears to be an image of E.T. attempting to phone home -- and almost getting sliced in half by a laser beam. Or something. You can check out that image after the jump.

Tags: google maps, GoogleMaps, privacy, street view, StreetView

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Antonio said 6:39PM on 5-30-2007

What are those guys doing in front of the Google Plex. What is the yellow van on the T-shirts?

http://maps.google.com/?q=Mountain+View,+CA&ie=UTF8&ll=37.421452,-122.084&spn=0.001157,0.00294&t=k&z=19&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.420894,-122.084098&cbp=1,360,0.502439236943973,0

Is it related to the Street View feature?

Brian said 6:55PM on 5-30-2007

Is this really an invasion of privacy? How is this different than if somebody was taking a picture of the tree in front of her house? As long as Google is not using the image to make money off of her house than it might not be considered invasion of privacy. There is a good discussion on Scoble's blog about this here:
http://scobleizer.com/2007/05/30/boingboing-reader-demonstrates-misunderstanding-of-privacy/

Brian said 11:17PM on 5-30-2007

Is it an invasion of privacy when I take a picture of my friend on the street and somebody's cat is in the window in the background?

Brian said 11:18PM on 5-30-2007

Brian - They don't have to be making money off it for it to be an invasion of privacy. Those two items are unrelated.

The level of detail is pretty creepy.

Peter said 11:18PM on 5-30-2007

Brian - Not of the cat's privacy, but it might be an invasion of the property owner's privacy.
It depends on the level of detail in the photo and what it is used for. Taking the picture and sharing it only with your friend is very different from posting on a public web site. Taking a picture of one person's cat is also very different from taking a picture of every cat in the city and identifying by address, where every cat lives.

This is a complex issue. Scoble's assertion that if I can see it from the street I can photograph it and do whatever I want with it is overly simplistic and not correct.

Bambino said 11:19PM on 5-30-2007

"That ET thing" appears on every place you go to using Street Views. It's always there. It's the only place where the 360º camera has a flaw... perhaps it should be called a 356º camera?

Carl said 7:33AM on 5-31-2007

I like that ET thing. THat's only slightly more than five miles away from me. Most likely an artifact of something since that seems to be at the extreme limit of where they finished taking that series of pictures.

Bryan Price said 8:02AM on 5-31-2007

Antonio, the van is the truck that they use to take all the street level pictures with.

Scott said 9:42AM on 5-31-2007

Amazing. They're peeking in windows now, and yet Google Maps still has a vacant lot for the building I live in in downtown Washington, D.C., which has been here for THREE YEARS.

fryboy 11 said 5:18PM on 5-31-2007

I found the alien again further down that same road

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=new+york&ie=UTF8&om=1&layer=c&cbll=40.673835,-74.406761&cbp=1,234.924811093247,0.61024115755627,1&ll=40.69795,-74.405594&spn=0.099562,0.150032&z=13

fryboy 11 said 5:21PM on 5-31-2007

I found the alien further down the same road CORRECT LINK.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=new+york&ie=UTF8&om=1&layer=c&cbll=40.671532,-74.405889&cbp=1,233.21452170418,0.650969989281887,2&ll=40.674991,-74.404821&spn=0.006754,0.020084&z=16

Peter said 8:33AM on 6-01-2007

Looking around you can see that the San Francisco maps are WAY more detailed than the other cities. Zoom all the way in on a SF image and you can see everything. Do the same in NY and it's a blocky mess.
If the NY maps are more like the "standard" they will use it does make it less creepy.

david said 10:01PM on 6-01-2007

I am sure people going to come up with interesting things over next few days.

http://www.wickedviews.com/ - Wicked StreetView sightings :-)

Ninth Life said 8:50PM on 6-02-2007

Google has got nothing on Yahoo's Stalk Photo Network.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/secret_squirrel/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/voyeurinn/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/babes-icu/

Stu said 8:12AM on 6-04-2007

I think the law is way behind Web 2.0 and needs to catch up in a hurry. There's another interesting and funny article of Street View here:

http://paralleldivergence.com/2007/06/03/the-private-lives-of-google-street-view/

ziad said 9:44AM on 6-09-2007

i am ziad from lebanon i hope to download the google street

ziad said 10:37AM on 6-09-2007

i am ziad from lebanon i hope to download the google street

alfahd said 9:30AM on 6-10-2007

danlod google street viw

JMS said 11:52AM on 6-10-2007

This is a quick video from AP discussing the privacy concerns: http://thenewsroom.com/details/361222

ash said 7:48AM on 6-19-2007

how do u download street view on me computer and it free

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