[LINK] Google StreetView Launched in Oz

[Roger Clarke]

Privacy advocates say Google's gone too far
Tha Australian
Andrew Colley
August 05, 2008
<http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24129794-5013404,00.html>http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24129794-5013404,00.html

Smile Australia, you're on Google's candid camera
The Sydney Morning Herald
Asher Moses
August 5, 2008 - 12:01PM
http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/smile-australia-youre-on-googles-candid-camera/2008/08/04/1217701932020.html

Google today launches its controversial Street View mapping tool in 
Australia amid a backlash against the feature by privacy activists 
around the world.

Street View, accessed from 
http://maps.google.com.au/help/maps/streetview/, lets people explore 
the country at ground level for the first time with little more than 
a computer and an internet connection.

Google-branded Holden Astra cars with roof-mounted cameras began 
traversing our streets about November last year, taking tens of 
millions of detailed panoramic street-level photos.

Most Australian coastal cities and many regional and outback towns 
are covered but there are some notable omissions, such as Uluru.

Google Maps product manager Andrew Foster said more images would be 
added to Street View in the coming months as they are processed by 
Google.

Street View was launched in the US in May last year and has since 
expanded to parts of France and Italy. Google's camera-equipped cars 
have also been spotted in New Zealand, Britain, Germany, Spain, 
Ireland, the Czech Republic, Japan, Switzerland and Norway.

"Our ambition is to be a world map," said Lars Rasmussen, Google 
Australia's engineer and one of the original creators of Google Maps.

Google expects tourists, home seekers, students and armchair 
explorers to embrace Street View in their research. The feature has 
already been praised by Tourism Australia, the Real Estate Institute 
of Australia and the Australian Geography Teachers Association.

Many of the original photographs that were part of the US Street View 
launch were taken down following privacy concerns. They include a 
woman in a G-string, a man striding into an adult bookshop and a man 
relieving himself on a pavement.

Since then, Google has developed technology to blur faces and number 
plates in the Street View photos, although it acknowledges the 
automated process is not foolproof. Privacy conscious users who 
notice any potentially invasive images on Street View can report them 
to Google using an online form.

A US couple is suing Google for invasion of privacy because photos of 
their home, located on a private road, appeared on Street View. In 
court documents filed in its defence, Google claimed that "even in 
today's desert, complete privacy does not exist".

Google Australia spokesman Rob Shilkin said the quote had been taken 
out of context and no Australian private roads would be visible on 
Street View.

To assuage local privacy concerns, Google demonstrated Street View 
for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, the Australian Privacy 
Foundation and various welfare groups for homeless people.

The privacy commissioner, Karen Curtis, said she would continue to 
monitor Street View but those with concerns could first contact 
Google and then her office directly.

Dan Svantesson, co-chairman of the privacy foundation's internet 
subcommittee and a law professor at Bond University, applauded Google 
for developing the blurring technology but said its effectiveness 
would only be apparent after Street View went live today.

He said he was concerned that the link to the form for users to 
report privacy concerns with individual images wasn't visible enough. 
And even with the blurring technology, cars and people - particularly 
those in small towns or neighbourhoods - could still be identified 
from other features.

At a technology industry lunch in May, Google evangelist and internet 
pioneer Vint Cerf said that "nothing you do ever goes away and 
nothing you do ever escapes notice ... there isn't any privacy, get 
over it", the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.

The US National Legal and Policy centre responded by releasing a 
dossier of information about an unnamed Google executive - later 
revealed to be co-founder Larry Page - including their address and 
route to work, using information compiled only from Street View 
images in 30 minutes.

"Perhaps in Google's world, privacy does not exist, but in the real 
world individual privacy is fundamentally important and is being 
chipped away bit by bit every day by companies like Google," NLPC 
chairman Ken Boehm said.


-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW