[LINK] Google StreetView Launched in Oz

[Stilgherrian]

On 05/08/2008, at 1:22 PM, Eric Scheid wrote:

> On 5/8/08 10:30 AM, "Stilgherrian" <stil at stilgherrian.com> wrote:
>
>> 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. Real estate agents do it all the time. All Google has
>> done is photographed "everywhere" all at once, and shown us all the
>> results.
>
> The difference is that if you were to "walk past and photograph",  
> you too
> would be exposing yourself to scrutiny. I believe this reciprocity  
> factor
> enters into the equation of the sense of invasion, especially with the
> anonymity factor of the internet.

I agree this reciprocity is an important aspect, though I think people  
overstate how easy it is to see who's doing the scrutiny. A human  
strolling with a camera, a human in a car with a camera, a human in a  
car with a fancy camera on a roof mount -- all three are quite visible  
in the street, but in all three cases we don't know what happens to  
the imagery later.

Conversely, I've had a laptop and phone stolen from my home -- while I  
was home! -- because two guys coordinated their actions to create a  
distraction and knew what they were doing.

If I look at your house via Google Street View, I may be anonymous to  
you, for the moment, but my actions are still logged by Google.

[shrugs]

I don't pretend to know the answers, just exploring some interesting  
questions...

Stil


P.S. I have written about this for today's Crikey, but BEFORE being  
able to read most of the Link postings, such are deadlines. It'll  
probably be behind the paywall for the moment, but I'll do a different  
version later.

Oh no, Google took a photo of my house!"
http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20080805-Oh-no-Google-took-a-photo-of-my-house.html


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