My daughter called me a few days ago with some interesting news. “Hey Dad,” she said, “have you checked out Google Street View, lately?” “Not lately,” I replied. I hadn’t seriously looked at that feature of Google Maps and Google Earth since sometime last year, when there were very few “street views” available. “Guess what?” she asked. “I just saw my car! It’s creepy!”
This set me on an interesting quest. The last time I had looked at Google Street View, our fair city wasn’t even on the map. That’s all changed; we are now owned by Google.
The technology used by Google Street View is quite impressive. It starts with Google employees driving around town with a special camera mounted on their car, constantly taking pictures. Using Google’s massive computer processing power and special software, the pictures are joined together, allowing you to enjoy a 360-degree panoramic view of streets and neighborhoods. Using your mouse, you can tilt, pan, zoom and even “walk” down a street. The experience can be astounding.
Later, my daughter came over to my place and we surfed Google Street View together. Here’s how it works: go to maps.google.com. In the “Search Maps” box, type in a street address with the city and state. Click the search button and you’ll be taken to a detailed map of your location. If, in the box pointing to your address, you see the words “street view,” click on them. The picture that appears may show a location that’s a few doors down from your target, but you should recognize what you are seeing. Click on the arrows to navigate your way down the street, and your house or place of business will appear.
When I searched for my house, sure enough, there it was. “Hey,” I exclaimed, “There’s my house! There’s my van! There’s my truck! There’s my neighbor working out in his yard!” It was freaky.
I searched a few more addresses, just for fun, of people that I know. Every single search yielded the same type of revealing results. The level of available detail has many folks quite concerned, including government agencies, the military, and privacy rights activists.
The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a non-profit government/corporate watchdog group, recently released the results of an extensive test of Google Street View. The goal of the test was to see just how much information they could gather about someone using Google Street View and Google Earth. They decided to make the target of their quest a top-level Google executive.
NLPC said that in less than 30 minutes they had obtained, not only revealing photographs of their target’s home, but also the personal license plate numbers of vehicles parked at the executive’s home address, the name of the landscaping company used by the homeowner, and the name of the next door neighbor’s home security company. NLPC chairman Ken Boehm was quoted as saying, “There is no better evidence that individual privacy simply does not exist in Google’s world than by the chilling amount of detailed visual information Google now collects on all of us, information that any Internet user can now compile in a dossier in less than 30 minutes. The fact that every American is now subject to this type of scrutiny with the click of a mouse is frightening.”
Lawsuits have been filed against Google over Street Views, alleging unwarranted invasions of privacy. The city council of North Oaks, Minnesota has even gone so far as to ban Google Street View from their town. Where all of this will lead is anyone’s guess.
I’m just glad that Google Street view doesn’t let you look up and over fences – yet. My back yard is a mess.