Once again in the news for infringing on people's privacy.

Quote :

"Google Zooms In Too Close for Some OAKLAND, Calif., — For Mary Kalin-Casey, it was never about her cat. Monty the cat was visible in a photo showing a street in Oakland. Ms. Kalin-Casey, who manages an apartment building here with her husband, John Casey, was a bit shaken when she tried a new feature in Google’s map service called Street View. She typed in her address and the screen showed a street-level view of her building. As she zoomed in, she could see Monty, her cat, sitting on a perch in the living room window of her second-floor apartment. “The issue that I have ultimately is about where you draw the line between taking public photos and zooming in on people’s lives,” Ms. Kalin-Casey said in an interview Thursday on the front steps of the building. “The next step might be seeing books on my shelf. If the government was doing this, people would be outraged.” "

http://tinyurl.com/27kgs9

[Edited on June 5, 2007 at 9:53 AM. Reason : tiny url]

6/5/2007 9:53:11 AM

I totally agree with her.

6/5/2007 10:02:27 AM

Quote :

"“You don’t have a right to ‘privacy’ over what can be seen while driving the speed limit past your house,” wrote a Boing Boing reader, identified as Rich Gibson, in response to Ms. Kalin-Casey’s complaint. Others dismissed her as a crazy cat lady."

I agree. I'd take a different stance on it photographing a person's backyard where they may have some expectation of privacy.

6/5/2007 10:04:22 AM

I think having a picture of this amount of detail on the web is a little different than 'what you can see while going the speed limit'.

She's overreacting a little bit (oh, god, there's a murky picture of my cat!), but I also don't care if streetview were to show that I haven't lined my curtains and they don't hang straight.

6/5/2007 10:08:38 AM

6/5/2007 10:08:39 AM

First, oh no a street view of your house? However will you survive?
Second, she lets the New York times print her street address and a photo taken inside her house. ATTENTION WHORE.

6/5/2007 10:13:46 AM

It was taken from a public street. Get over it.

6/5/2007 3:05:41 PM

I still agree with her

6/5/2007 3:08:08 PM

To both of you: it's a public street. Get the fuck over it.

6/5/2007 3:14:22 PM

is it still a public street when I'm standing at someone's apartment window staring in?

6/5/2007 3:15:19 PM

Quote :

"is it still a public street when I'm standing at someone's apartment window staring in?"

6/5/2007 3:21:01 PM

Those views can be seen from the street. Get curtains.

6/5/2007 3:22:16 PM

Quote :

"Those views can be seen from the street"

yeah, when whoever is doing the looking is actually there and you can see them too.....


I don't like the fact that anyone could be watching from anywhere, not to mention the spillover effect to Gov surveillance. Wait for the first case of this being used to aid stalking or some other crime or to trample civil rights.

6/5/2007 3:30:42 PM

ridiculous, the woman's complaint that is.

6/5/2007 3:41:35 PM

its not like they put a webcam inside her house

maybe i should stand in my front yard and yell at every car that passes by to "stop looking at me!" cause i want privacy

buy 5 acres and build a house away from teh road if you want privacy

however its kind of funny that, to my knowledge, the Street View feature is only available in maybe a few dozen locations anywhere...she happens to be in one

6/5/2007 3:45:41 PM

Quote :

"maybe i should stand in my front yard and yell at every car that passes by to "stop looking at me!" cause i want privacy"

driving by in a car /= sitting on your computer and watching someone w/o their knowledge.

Quote :

"buy 5 acres and build a house away from teh road if you want privacy"

the new american motto?......it does have a certain ring to it

6/5/2007 3:50:27 PM

I tried this, and it doesn't zoom that far...although I did it with my ex g/fs house and I could see my truck in her driveway.

^^ I was wondering why I didn't see that option for any of the locations I typed in, granted they were all in NC, and they probably don't have that option here yet.

[Edited on June 5, 2007 at 4:12 PM. Reason : ^]

6/5/2007 4:07:48 PM

how is a still picture "watching someone"???

6/5/2007 4:12:05 PM

^^yeah again, its a picture that i doubt they would update often...if you havent used the feature its pretty neat...basically a panoramic view of the particular intersection/address

also now we all know that people might be watching us, so there goes the "without their knowledge" part

6/5/2007 4:49:08 PM

anyone found any hookers in vegas yet?

[Edited on June 5, 2007 at 5:37 PM. Reason : http://www.streetviewspotting.com/ has some cool stuff]

6/5/2007 5:34:09 PM

http://www.streetviewspotting.com/mtree/people/in-their-house.html

6/5/2007 6:42:47 PM

a) the pictures are over a year old
b) you have no expectation of privacy in plain view from a street (no matter how close you are to the window)
c) Google allows users to request that photos be taken down from the site due to inappropriate or personal information

goddamn, I wish journalists would layout the whole story and not just the "OMG, they're spying on us"

edit: what a goddamn, useless fucking title for this thread. I mean, at least go with "Google's spying on us" or some bullshit

[Edited on June 5, 2007 at 6:47 PM. Reason : .]

6/5/2007 6:46:08 PM

lol...she saw that image and thought. "ding! a way to get my 15 minutes of fame"

6/5/2007 6:48:04 PM

Quote :

"If the government was doing this, people would be outraged."

ok duh, the govt IS doing this

6/5/2007 8:00:59 PM

please, if it is public now via google, that means the gov't has been doing it for quite some time, like in the 90s when Clinton released the military's GPS satellite capability to general public use when it had been around since the 70s

6/5/2007 8:59:34 PM