[LINK] 'Public' may still be private [was: Google StreetView Launched in Oz]

[Stephen Wilson]

Stilgherrian 5/08/2008 wrote:
> I'm going to ask the question: Exactly how is a photograph of a house  
> on a street an invasion of privacy, when it isn't linked to any  
> individual?
> 
> The house is a visible, physical object that anyone can walk past and  
> photograph. The address of the house is, again, a known fact. Anyone  
> could already do that and, indeed, post the photo online with a  
> description. ... 
> 
> If we're worried about the facts of WHO lives in that house, well,  
> that data is already available all over the place.

I agree photographing my house might not feel like an "invasion of 
privacy" but if my name gets associated with the photo, then the letter 
of the privacy law is clear.

I'm paraphrasing, and combining a number of pertinent privacy principles 
here: the law is that any collecting of personally identifiable 
information without the associated person's knowledge, for purposes that 
that person has not been made aware of, is generally prohibited.

It is a common misconception that the fact that such-and-such is already 
public means it is not subject to privacy laws.  The combination of 
public records in novel ways, and the use of those combinations without 
the associated persons' awareness, is usually going to be a technical 
violation of their privacy.

 > All Google has done is photographed "everywhere" all at once,
 > and shown us all the results.

Yup.  Creating Google Street Views clearly includes the collection of 
personally identifiable information (on a vast scale).  It's that simple.

It might seem like only a technical breach of privacy law, but there are 
many many reasons why it's a good idea to treat this seriously.  A 
simple example might be that the fact that someone owns a boat can be 
discerned from a photo of it in their driveway.  That's "public" but 
would it be right to sell a list of all people photographed with boats 
in their driveways to a marine insurance company?

Cheers,

Steve.

Stephen Wilson
Managing Director
Lockstep

Phone +61 (0)414 488 851

www.lockstep.com.au
-------------------
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