Google is again on the news for privacy reasons. The Canadian Privacy Commissioner has raised concerns regarding the privacy of individuals captured in each and every photographs of streetwise. The resolution of the pictures is high enough to identify the individuals in the pictures.
It’s a good feature providing better navigational help for folks who are strangers to a city. However, how about certain considerations on the privacy of the individuals as well as physical security of the locations captured in the photographs?
Whenever, Immersive Media is on the road to capture these pictures, I am not aware that I will be included in their captures. I may be coming out of movie theatre, a pharmacy or even a location that is deemed to be confidential only to my employer. This capture can be used against me in a court just because I was included in the capture.
Consider the photos that are freely available with certain buildings that host critical business solutions. Isn’t it easy to plan an attack on these building with a mere search on Google Maps? Streetview is available for well known cities and that’s where most of the top fortune companies are located. Some of them host their critical business functions or their data centers in these buildings.
Of course, Google offer the opportunity to take these pictures off. However, wouldn’t it be late by then?