Google’s controversial “Street View” service service launched yesterday, creating an immediate challenge for a creative legal PR. We assume the internet giant has one, and that he or she is already working out how to counter the negative aspects of Google’s service, which provides panoramic street-level images of 25 cities.
Google says that it will obscure people’s faces and car’s numberplates, but for Simon Davies, the director of Privacy International, this isn’t enough. As he told the Independent: “The laws are very clear. Prior consent is required before people’s personal information can be captured and used by a commercial organisation. We don’t see why Google should be exempt from this.”
According to AFP, the 25 British cities covered are Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Southampton, Swansea and York.
Don’t go to them if you’re an employee who should be at work elsewhere, a married person having affair who is supposed to be in Plymouth, or if you’re planning to rob a bank. Or, if you are in any of them, don’t do anything silly. You might find that your privacy is compromised.
Images courtesy of WebUrbanist, which has an interesting piece on Street View, USA-style.
