[LINK] Google streetview cars coming back to Australia

[Jan Whitaker]

Google hits the streets for a better view




ASHER MOSES

November 2, 2009 - 12:43PM

Google Street View images showing the man in the Port Melbourne dunny 
(top left) and several examples from around the world of private 
activities being captured for public view.

If you missed your chance to be immortalised by Google the last time 
around, be sure to spruce yourself up when you are on the streets this summer.

The search giant is hitting the road again to capture images of 
Australia's capital cities at ground level as part of an update to 
its Street View service.

Since it was 
<http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/global-backlash-as-google-launches-street-view/2008/08/05/1217701932020.html>launched 
in Australia in August last year, Google Maps Street View has gone 
from being an 
<http://www.smh.com.au/technology/google-street-view-told-keep-off-private-20090616-cejg.html>invasive 
privacy concern to a voyeuristic 
<http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/google-takes-a-risky-road-with-privacy/2008/08/06/1217702095425.html>gawking 
tool to a valuable navigation service used by thousands of 
Australians every day.

In a 
<http://google-au.blogspot.com/2009/10/street-view-update-coming-to-australia.html>posting 
on Google's blog, product manager Andrew Foster said the company was 
sending its Street View fleet of Holden Astras back on the road to 
ensure its panoramic imagery was up to date and reflective of what 
you would see if you visited an area in person.

"Starting from [this month] in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, 
Adelaide, Perth and parts of Tasmania, we'll be doing our best to 
cover as many of Australia's public roads as we can during this 
summer," he wrote.

Foster said the new images would be "crisper than before" and the 
face- and number plate-blurring technology would be more accurate. He 
said the new images would be added to Google Maps "sometime within 
the next year".

Street View, now available in more than 100 cities worldwide, was 
launched in Canada last month.

Foster pointed to these images - specifically the stonework on the 
Basilique Notre-Dame - as an example of the quality we can expect 
from the new Australian images.

A Google Australia spokeswoman would not give an approximate 
timetable for when the cars would be traversing each Australian 
capital city. But she said the cars would be driving around at least 
part-time until March next year.

However, people are now more familiar with the Google cars and their 
difficult to conceal roof-mounted tripods. Many Canadians were 
photographed making rude gestures at the cameras.

Google has been able to placate some privacy campaigners by blurring 
number plates and faces of people caught in its lenses and promising 
only to photograph from public streets.

People who are caught in 
<http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/how-street-view-put-bills-grief-on-show/2008/08/11/1218306724273.html>compromising 
positions - such as a Port Melbourne man snapped 
<http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/relief-for-those-caught-by-street-views-dunny-deal/2009/01/29/1232818599129.html>sitting 
on his outhouse dunny - have been able to apply to the company to 
have images removed from Street View.

But that didn't stop a US couple from suing it for invasion of 
privacy after a picture of their house appeared on Street View.

The house of Aaron and Christine Boring was allegedly snapped without 
permission on a private road but in February a judge 
<http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/security/google-wins-street-view-privacy-case/2009/02/19/1234632934327.html>ruled 
in Google's favour, arguing there was no proof the couple were harmed 
by the Street View images.

In May, 
Greece<http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/web/google-street-view-banned-in-greece/2009/05/13/1241894017000.html> 
banned Google from taking images of its streets until the company was 
able to satisfy Greece's Data Protection Authority that citizens' 
privacy would not be breached.

That month, the company said it would 
<http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/google-to-reshoot-japanese-street-view-images/2009/05/14/1241894087355.html>reshoot 
all photos in Japan after residents complained the 360-degree 
panoramic images provided a view over the fences around their homes.

In June, Google was forced to agree to make people, their cars and 
their homes unidentifiable in the raw data held internally by the 
company after concerns were 
<http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/google-bows-to-pressure-for-german-street-view-20090618-ciy0.html>raised 
by German officials.

In Australia, Foster said internal images would be permanently 
blurred within one year of their publication on Street View.

And, in August, Switzerland's data protecting watchdog 
<http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/swiss-watchdog-demands-shutdown-of-google-street-view-20090826-eyn1.html>demanded 
that Google immediately withdraw Street View from the country, after 
he found that many faces and vehicle number plates had not been 
sufficiently blurred or covered up.

Some people have taken matters into their own hands, with residents 
of a small English village 
<http://www.smh.com.au/technology/villagers-block-google-street-view-20090615-c9p8.html>forming 
a human chain in April to stop one of Google's camera-equipped cars 
from passing through.

----
A couple fun comments:

What a waste of energy!!!
How many kms are they covering???

Well I'd better get my "Piss off Google. Use Microsoft Bing, it's 
better" sign ready and erect it in the front yard.



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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