Google Street View gives us access to parts of the world we have never seen before. You can travel to the Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon or the Eiffel tower without setting foot outside your house. Even our own university has been added to Street View recently.
Unfortunately access to areas previously inaccessible, could also pose a threat to safety and privacy.
Objections have been made to Google images showing “people engaging in activities visible from public property in which they do not wish to be photographed and have published online.” Google maintains that these images are removed or blurred. Number plates and people’s faces are blurred to protect privacy.
They also maintain that the photos were taken on public property. However, Street View cameras are mounted on elevated structures to enable them to take better pictures, so they might take photographs NOT in a public area.
“On May 13, 2009, Google Japan announced that it would modify their cameras to scan from a lower height of 2.05 meters above ground level, 95 centimeters lower than the original height of the camera head. The new height is intended to avoid having cameras view over fences in front of homes and into homes. This reduced height is to apply immediately, and all areas previously visited will be rescanned from the reduced height. Scans taken at the original height will remain available until they are replaced with the new images.” (www.wikipedia.org)
Various countries have laid complaints against Google’s Street View policy and tried to prevent them from photographing. In most cases they conceded and Google continued filming.
If you do have a problem with an image Google reported, there is the option to report it via Google’s Street View support page. Just keep in mind that the image will not be removed, but only blurred.
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org]
