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Google Japan To Help Victims of Street View Abuse
posted by lxnyce
on Sunday September 06, @07:11AM
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from the why-can't-I-spy-in-piece dept.
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from the why-can't-I-spy-in-piece dept.
Currently in discussion on slashdot. Here is their summary : "After repeated concerns from Japanese citizens over privacy rights violations involving Street View and a probe by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Google Japan has announced that it will help victims of Street View photo abuse take action against offending sites. Google Japan said it would send requests to the sites for removal of maliciously used Street View images. It will also potentially block the site from Google's search engine and consider legal action for those sites which ignore or refuse the request. Action to this extent against secondary-use abusers is reportedly a first in relationship to Google's Street View worldwide."
Related Stories
Google Street View Could Be Unlawful In Europe? 7 comments
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Slashdot discuss a story named Google StreetView could be unlawful in Europe. Their summary: "European data protection laws restrict the commercial use of photographs where individuals are identifiable. The law sets extra requirements for so-called sensitive personal data: it demands explicit consent, not just notification: 'If Google's multi-lens camera cars come to Europe and inadvertently find themselves taking pictures of persons leaving a church or sexual health clinic, they may just need to pull over and start picking up signatures."" See this previous story comments on privacy.
Google's StreetView Imagery Removing Process 1 comment
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Google's recent StreetView feature generated a lot of ink lately. All Points Blog links to a Wired article describing how people can indicate Google to remove imagery where they can be seen. From the article: "Google has blinked, backing down from its demand for my driver's license and a sworn statement and agreeing not to use the information I submit for any purpose other than processing my request." Google product counsel Daphne Keller personally phoned Bankston to tell him about the change in policy, and then Google's help desk sent him the new requirements: [...] (1) Your name (2) The location of the image in our service [...] That means Google has no content-based standard for a take-down, and no verification that the requester is the person pictured."
Are Streetview Privacy Concerns Taken Seriously? 3 comments
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Bull writes "After hearing about a rude word written on a school's roof visible in Google Maps I decided to check it out, it wasn't that impressive a typical prank, what was more interesting was when I zoomed in further and explored the area using Streetview.
In under three minutes I noticed an unblurred car license plate and two unblurred faces, now I understand the technological problems involved in detecting faces and number plates but I genuinely expected Google to do a better job than this. They have got the publics acceptance by promising the blurring features, but in my opinion the promises should be kept, and if they can't be kept Google should at the very least stop adding new Streetview imagery until their software is improved.
I will probably get flamed by the Google fanboys, to preempt some of the inevitable comments, yes you can contact Google and ask them to remove any photos, but why is this our job? Don't they have a QA department with paid staff? Yes I can walk down the street and see people with unblurred faces, but they can also see me, plus I'm one person not several million.
Another thing worth considering is what would happen if you walked around a town taking photos of everyone and everything? I'm pretty sure you would end up being interviewed by the police, and I doubt promising to blur the images of faces, especially childrens faces, would get you very far."
See also related stories below.
Technology: Teen spots Alleged Robbers On Google Street View
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Found on cnet news : "Last September, a 14-year-old boy told police in Groningen, Holland, that he had been knocked off his bike and robbed of some money and his cell phone.
What evidence did he have of his alleged assailants? Very little.
Six months later, the Associated Press reports, he was pootling around on Google Street View when he saw an image of himself--and of two males behind him, who, he seemed to remember, were just in the place where he was allegedly robbed."
Switzerland's Data Protection Watchdog Wants Street View Disabled
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Found on slashdot, here is their summary : "The Swiss office for Data Protection has asked Google to turn off Street View within the country because it doesn't meet the conditions demanded when permission was given to go ahead with the photography. Google answered privacy concerns with the following points (I'm translating them from German; here's an automated translation): 'Google will publish in advance where it is going to record the images, so you can act accordingly.' Do they want you to hide? Where is the real obligation here? 'Google has made masking the images of people and car license plates obligatory.' I think this is where trouble starts, because their permission to go ahead appears to have been dependent on how well they did this. I have browsed one particular town as an experiment and was quite quickly able to find unmasked faces. This means that either the algorithm they use doesn't work, or that it is done manually and they've fallen behind (in which case they should not have put up the images). 'Although a picture of a home is generally not covered under Data Protection, Google has agreed to remove them if asked. Follow the same process as removing a person.' I think it wouldn't be half as bad if the pictures weren't taken with a high enough resolution to see inside a house. In short, Google has not been given the easy ride it had in other countries regarding Street View. I actually suspect there is more to come."
Google Japan To Help Victims of Street View Abuse
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