Is Google Maps An Invasion Of Privacy?

[Soviet Rathe 1]

I went on Google Maps for the first time and typed in my address, at first I saw a harmful map of my city.. but when I click the "Satellite" button I was shocked!I could actually see my house and everything around it crystal clear!! I feel this is an invasion of privacy, what do you think?

[Tramposch 1]

There is a streetview button also on google map, it goes to your street and you can see your house as if you are driving on the road... I think its fine, its just the same thing as driving and looking at a house.

[Zagubadu? 0]

I guess if someone was out to get you and knew your address. ( Kind of hard to navigate at night, and who murders people during the day :angel: ) They could see things like exits, doors, windows. At the same time they could just drive by your house. They have new technology with certain satelites that don't look at a sky view but at an angled one. ( The on street pictures you see I'm pretty sure are not satellites must be a camera ) They can look right into peoples windows. I thought that was kind of creepy.

[knoppixusr 0]

I think Google street view is definitely an invasion of privacy, They should require the permission of the owner of a property to take pictures. Because now criminals can use this data to their advantage and plan crimes and attacks with less risk and effort. I think the same should go with the satellite pictures they take. They should blur out every property until they have express permission of each owner to unblur that their property. The Internet is great for sharing information but sometimes I hate it for how invasive it has become. If the Internet ever dies i won't miss that part of the Internet one bit. It is not only Google it is Facebook too. How many times did you feel like asking someone did i give you permission to put that pic of me on the net?

I went on Google Maps for the first time and typed in my address, at first I saw a harmful map of my city.. but when I click the "Satellite" button I was shocked!I could actually see my house and everything around it crystal clear!! I feel this is an invasion of privacy, what do you think?

[deadmad7 4]

Just found some new news :

Privacy officials from across Europe have urged Google to make several changes to the way it operated its Street View service on the continent. They want stronger efforts to avoid breaching confidentiality and a shorter storage period for images.
Street View is part of the firms mapping service and involves photographs taken from a vertical position from a car rather than aerial shots. Google has now received a letter from the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, which brings together data regulators from all European Union member countries.

The letter asks that Google appoint a local representative in each country to make sure it complies with local laws. It also says the firm should apply a more rigorous process to make sure identifying information such as faces and license plate numbers are blurred before publication. And it wants to halve the time Google stores the unedited original images to six months.

Store original images for only six months?

That means that the Google camera cars will need to be on a constant drive aorund to update imagery. Hence your perceived threat to privacy will be even more than it is now, simply because the imagery will be much more recent and accurate.

In actual fact, if a Google camera can see a locality, so can anybody else who may be there. I cannot possibly see how this is an invasion of privacy at all.

For Gods sake Europe, do you actually want this FREE convenience or not?

[kleong 0]

To me, unless the street view have images of the interior of your property, it is not invading your privacy. To me, the street view is showing the exterior of your house. That itself is exposed to public view, therefore, there is no issue of privacy to begin with.

[Soviet Rathe 1]

I think Google street view is definitely an invasion of privacy, They should require the permission of the owner of a property to take pictures. Because now criminals can use this data to their advantage and plan crimes and attacks with less risk and effort. I think the same should go with the satellite pictures they take. They should blur out every property until they have express permission of each owner to unblur that their property. The Internet is great for sharing information but sometimes I hate it for how invasive it has become. If the Internet ever dies i won't miss that part of the Internet one bit. It is not only Google it is Facebook too. How many times did you feel like asking someone did i give you permission to put that pic of me on the net?

I agree with you there. because of the detailed imagery, you can plan a crime from thousands of miles away! idk I just found it really creepy.
Plus, not everything it shows is visible to the public. things from deep within your property that you can't normally see without actually going on the property is shown.. therefore.. you can look deep within private property...

[Jonnyabc 0]

Just found some new news :
Store original images for only six months?

That means that the Google camera cars will need to be on a constant drive around to update imagery. Hence your perceived threat to privacy will be even more than it is now, simply because the imagery will be much more recent and accurate.

In actual fact, if a Google camera can see a locality, so can anybody else who may be there. I cannot possibly see how this is an invasion of privacy at all.

For Gods sake Europe, do you actually want this FREE convenience or not?

Based off of the article you posted, it's saying the UNEDITED version will be removed in six months...this means if there is a problem with the EDITED version they will fix it. The EDITED version, which is what you and I see will remain, but if at any time they need to redo something after the firs 6 months, it will be too late.

[anwiii 17]

listen folks. google maps is FAR from an invasion of privacy. any tom, *BLEEP* and harry can pass by your house anytime they want. cars passing by see the same thing that google maps is showing. google maps is also not going to increase crime rate. it may help a criminal plan an attack if a criminal is looking for a corner house with two exits, but if the criminal is already looking, he's gonna rob a house whether google maps was there to help him or not.you know, i really hate these kind of threads. especially from people who live in the united states. what do you think our own government has on you? don't know? well, i'll bet it's more than a layout of your property and they keep all that secret from the public. google maps is public. anyone can access it. i think it would help MORE than harm when someone is lost. this new technology may SEEM like a threat or an invasion of privacy, but clearly it's notalso, to get to your specific house on google maps, you will need an address. maybe in the future you may just be able to type in a full name of the house owner. who knows. if google maps is illegal(taking public pictures and posting them on the internet), then photo journalists or paparazzi's should be banned from taking pictures in public and selling them to the media. in fact, any media should be banned from distributing public photos. how ridiculous does this sound now? VERY! i don't know about other countries, but here in the united states we have rights. if you don't want people taking pictures of your house, put a friggin' wall around it so nobody can see it. that's what the stars do....or they buy a house with a very large driveway. anything that can be seen from a street view is PUBLIC! anyone who says they deserve their privacy if they are prancing around naked in their front yard for any passerby to see is just CRAZY insane thinking that.google may have done some things in the past that were shady like copyright infringement, but google maps is FAR from an invasion of privacy and anyone who is THAT paranoid about their privacy should build a fence or a wall, or just stay indoors 24/7 so nobody will know what you're up to or how your grass is 2 feet tall or how your house needed a new paint job last century.i feel google maps helps a lot more than it hurts. i am ALL for protecting my rights as a u.s. citizen and i just don't see any just cause to prohibit google from doing what they do best......coming out with new technology on the internet that will always be helpfull to many. but ummmm....their copyright infringements are another thing. they are just WRONG.....but at the same time, with their infringements, they are actually creating more traffic for the people that are arguing about them. i am sure that if you approach google to blur out your house or street view of your property, they will just laugh at you because i could easily go to any house, take pictures, upload them on the internet all over the place, even give a street address, tell the owners about it, and that will be within my rights as a united states citizen. there are no privacy laws being broken!!!now what if we lived in a country where there were privacy laws that prohibited this sort of thing and other things that are similar? well, then we would be in a country with less rights and less control. we would live in a country where we were controlled by the government and the laws they dictate to take our rights aways from us. but HEY....you may like those other countries that do that.....you know....their way or no way?i also hate people who will attack google without just cause. bringing up certain disagreements is ok. nothing is perfect. but instead of looking at it as an invasion of privacy issue, try to look at it from another perspective where this sort of technology can be usefull. again, the goverment was ahead of google for years on information they collect. you don't see any arguement because their information is private with clearance codes. all google did was introduce a new map technology that FAR exceeds any map you can buy in your store or local gas station. that's all they did.

[Spyda 0]

I went on Google Maps for the first time and typed in my address, at first I saw a harmful map of my city.. but when I click the "Satellite" button I was shocked!I could actually see my house and everything around it crystal clear!! I feel this is an invasion of privacy, what do you think?

It really depends. For me, personally, Google Maps helps me out so much because I am able to virtually see maps so it makes it easier for me to find the destination I am looking for when I eventually drive and try to find the place. Not only that, I love using Google Maps when I am about to go on vacation so I can scope out the area and see what's up and so it's not much of mystery when I arrive. That aspect makes me like Google Maps.

The only thing that scares me is stalkers or people could use it for bad things, but I think the good outweighs the bad in this instance.

[anwiii 17]

if you have a stalker, you have more things to be concerned about than google maps haha. the stalker is probably already hiding in your bushes. haha

i think the good DEFINATLEY outweighs the bad. and i can't really think of anything BAD only because whatever the bad is, it is probably already happening with or without google maps.

take for instance guns. they say, "guns don't kill people, people kill people". this is true. guns is just a means to kill or protect but if there wasn't any guns, obviously people would find another way. it's the nature of people at any given time that makes a situation dangerous.

i can slightly see the point of the topic maker, but not enough to even dent my opinion on the subject. if we take away google maps and the technology it delivers, might as well take away all the cars because there are bad drivers out there or scammers that will get in to accidents on purpose just to collect insurance.

is google maps world wide because i can possibly see an objection in other countries where photographs are not encouraged by outsiders. when i was in africa, when in kenya and tanzania, people get offended if they are anywhere in your tourist shots so there ARE unwritten rules about respecting other peoples cultures, but in the united states, i have never been to a place that is so objectionable and i have been all over....

The only thing that scares me is stalkers or people could use it for bad things, but I think the good outweighs the bad in this instance.

[StvenWesley 0]

I usually use Google maps for research, nearly instead of GPS :angel: . Actually I seldom cosider this APP has encroach my or our people's privacy.But I am not sure.