[LINK] Google StreetView Launched in Oz

[Ivan Trundle]

On 05/08/2008, at 11:07 AM, Roger Clarke wrote:

> <snip>Google have said to us that they were going to address these
> problems.  Some specifics follow.
>
> Blurring of faces is important, and so is blurring of number-plates.

I'm puzzled by this: why number plates? Is it possible for Joe Public  
to determine the ownership of a vehicle? I thought that this was in  
the province of the police force. Nonetheless, whilst my car is not  
unique, it is easy enough to deduce an association if a car that looks  
like mine is parked alongside a place that I might reasonably be  
assumed to have a connection.

>  (Otherwise there are risks of people being recognised.  In some
> cases, that's a safety issue.  In many others, the risk is of
> unjustifiable embarrassment about where they were, about what they
> appear to have been doing, or just 'cos - many people do *not*
> subscribe to the self-exposure fashion of the last few years).

I assume that one day in the future full removal of the entire body  
from the image will apply: clothing and body shape can be distinctive.  
Same goes for vehicles (and boats, trailers, or any moveable/temporary  
object).

> The photos must not be too high-res.
> (Because otherwise everyone would be seeing inside windows, deep into
> garages, and down to the bottom of driveways, and the images would be
> capable of being blown up by, for example, voyeurs and people with
> criminal intent).

But there is nothing to prevent a member of the public from taking  
hires photos and placing them on the web: indeed, it is even  
encouraged in Google Earth (I've done it).

> Successive photos should be some distance apart.
> (Because otherwise it's too easy for crooks to generate accurate 3D
> images of buildings they're interested in getting into and out of
> surreptitiously).

Which they can do now. Again, I don't understand why this is so  
important. Crooks and other miscreants will do this (and more) as a  
matter of course. Microsoft's Photosynth browser can draw from  
personal photos or shots culled from photo-sharing sites to create a  
3D space users can "walk around" in.

All this seems a tad odd. And an odd thing to get caught up in the  
privacy issue.

iT

--
Ivan Trundle
http://itrundle.com ivan at itrundle.com
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