Peek-A-Boo, I See You

The way some people are going on about it, you would think that Google Street View is a direct affront to them. "It's an invasion of privacy!", they cry. If you don't know, Street View is a new function on the Google Earth program that allows users to see eye level pictures of select cities and towns. Basically, the Google people send a car through a city and on top of the car is a 360° camera. The techno wizards then take these photos and incorporate them into the regular shots of the city. It is like taking a tour of a street from eye level. Some people of course don't like this.

People opposed to this say that they don't want their image recorded for the world to see on the internet. They say it is an invasion of privacy. In some places whole towns have banded together to keep photos from being taken. I wonder what the big deal is really. Our images are regularly recorded every day. If you go to the store, walk down the street, go to the bank, enter a school, go to the airport, stop at a traffic light or enter a government building your picture is taken for posterity (or to identify you after you rob the bank). Add to this the number of people with camera phones and I'm surprised we are not all being recorded 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Really the only way your image is not recorded in today's society is if you live in the basement and never go outside.

There was a case where a gentleman (I use the term loosely, I assure you), was caught on Street View leaving a porn shop. His image was uploaded to the site and he requested that it be taken down and it was. The argument this brought up was, what if he had not seen it and it had stayed online? Thousands of people might have seen it. Yep. But my take on this is that people see you every day when you walk down the street. Employees see you when they serve you. You are in full view of everyone you pass on the sidewalk. If you are embarrassed to be seen doing something that you think might reflect poorly on you – Maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place!