Many newspapers, such as NEWS.com.au, are feeling a bit quite nervous about Google Street View coming to Australia later this year. Although license plates, people, and horses are blurred, the author of this article from NEWS.com.au is still worried for the following reasons:
- Some pictures have "captured" people in "compromising" positions.
- Criminals can use Street View to find escape routes.
- Before a photo can be removed, sites all over the Internet might have already posted them.
- Your house might be on there.
Well, the Australians do not need to worry, and here's why:
- Although this has happened many times before, it won't matter in Australia, since people's identities are well hidden on Street View.
- Criminals do that stuff anyway. You're just as safe as before Street View came to town.
- Unfortunately, some people like to tease other people, but the people being teased are unknown, because of the blurred faces.
- No one but family will know it's your house, since license plates are blurred, and any clues (doormats, mailboxes, addresses) are too far away or too small to be captured by Street View.
In Columbus, Ohio, a mother of three children was upset that she and her children were caught on Street View playing outside their home. What she apparently didn't know was that everyone's face had been blurred, and the pictures would have been too low-resolution anyway. And being being "caught" playing with your kids isn't really a bad thing.
Google works hard to respect people's privacy. So far, they've done the following for those who are skeptical about Street View:
- Blurred faces of people (and horses)
- Blurred license plates
- Switched to low resolution in the United States
- Removed images requested for removal (especially for a Boring family)
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