Monday, April 7, 2008

Pennsylvania Couple Sues Sues Google For Showing House On Street View - are you worried?

Google's Street View imagery (you know, the cool high-res 360 degree data collected by vehicles using Immersive Media technology) is still causing trouble... no doubt as the company now starts driving through residential areas gathering imagery the problems and complaints will continue. Now a couple in Pennsylvania is suing the company for showing their home to the world. According to this article the couple feels their privacy has been invaded. I'm not sure if they realize that the imagery isn't constantly updated and they aren't on a webcam! I just recent;y noticed that my town has been driven by the company and street view is now available on my street... big deal though! I asked myself, what's the big deal, what would people want with the imagery any way? For someone shopping for real estate this is going to be huge - no doubt real estate mashups will drool over this new imagery. But what else will people use the data for? Apparently unknown to the couple, Google does provide a request form to have your imagery removed. The couple should go and check out Zillow.com as they use Microsoft's imagery to display high-res oliques of pretty much any neighborhood... perhaps their lawyer should contact them as well! What about you? Are you concerned about having your house available to the world to see via street view?

No comments: