Before there was Street View, regular Google Maps had the bird's eye view. There you can see the tops of your houses, the streets, where there are small side roads, etc. To be honest and quite blunt, Street View is pretty slow on most computers. At times, it's also a bit confusing to use. I personally think that plain old Google Maps is more helpful than Street View. You can see the routes you would need to take and could have a path made out for you. Street View just seems like a fancy new toy for people to play around with.
I'm sure that technically speaking, Google hasn't broken any laws. It's a widely known search engine, so they've covered all the legal aspects. However, have they covered all the moral aspects? I mean, yes, license plates and faces have been blurred out.
But are those really the only things people don't want on the Internet? The majority of people I've asked agreed that it doesn't really help. Other than the fact that the rest of the person or car is still visible, they aren't comfortable with their house being viewed either. People's bodies, homes, property are all included in their respective privacies. If a person were to walk around neighbourhoods and just film his surroundings (including open windows with clear views inside), no doubt people would be uncomfortable. Google Street View is in no way different.
In general, I don't think it was a good idea. Street View violates people's privacy, and to be honest, blurring faces and license plates doesn't help at all. It doesn't seem to be much more helpful than Google Maps, at least not enough to make up for the cost of privacy. In the end, I feel like the product doesn't match up to the cost.
4 comments:
I completely agree with you, I don't like the idea of Google Street View. Thats good that your neighbourhood isn't featured on the software. My friend's house was and they had the garage open at the time. Now everyone can see what valuables she has in her garage.
I disagree with the software because no one has asked my permisson to have these photographs posted on the world web. One day I found out about the software and see many pictures of my friends (not me, thank God). I think Google Maps (bird's eye view) is good enough. Even though its really blurry, I don't have to worry about my privacy.
-Caitlin. Section 3
I also agree with you. Google shouldn't have spent so much time developing this new software, most people aren't very happy with the fact that they are exposed in so many different ways such as your cars, your homes, and even yourself. I completely agree, I also disagree with this software and though it might be some what helpful it violates to many people privacy that we are oblligated to have. I also agree the the blurryness added to the objects doesn't help at all.
Unlike the two previous posts, my opinion on this topic is that SOME of points I wouldn't agree on. Google Street View is a program that anybody that has access to the internet can use. I think this program is innovative for Google. Google has to improve and change and evolve as time passes. This is just the next step for them. If you take a look at history anything in the past that has ever been remarkable or innovative has had to face criticism in the beginning. But I think that people are just making too big of issue about privacy. I can agree that some pictures are a bit to exposing but Google's attempt to blur the faces and license plates is better than nothing. I think that the idea of Google Street View is pretty creative and at least Google is improving over time. If they were to follow criticism and shut it down, nothing new would ever last in society.
Larissa Sequeira Section: 02 Arturi
Hai Angeli 8D
I felt opposite of what you did when you searched your address and it didn't come up - I was actually disappointed that my neighbourhood wasn't special enough to get on Google Maps. I never saw it as an invasion of privacy until I found my car on Street View and got creeped out, however, so I see your point that people would be uncomfortable seeing their likeness on the internet. I like how you refer to Street View as a toy, because that's exactly how it's usually used - for fooling around with addresses, instead of being productive.
:)
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