Virtual Africa

Google Street View is coming to South Africa and it seems people are unsure if they should be terrified or excited.

In an effort to make some sense of the issue, I’ve decided to write a few words on the following :

1. What is Street View and how does Google create it?
2. What are the privacy concerns surrounding Google Street View?
3. A personal perspective on privacy.

What is Google Street View?

Google Street View is an extension of the very popular Google Maps.
It allows users to ‘go down to street level’ and see what it looks like at a particular spot on a map.

Broken down to its simplest building block, it consists of interactive panoramic images placed on the exact spot they were taken from. (Or in tech jargon: geo-located, interactive,  immersive imaging.)

These images become extremely informative and powerful because Google has created the ability to generate hundreds of thousands of them, each +- 10 m from the next.

Strung together, the panoramic images allow you to take a virtual walk or drive down a street in New York, London, and soon, Cape Town and Johannesburg.

It allows the user to experience and interact with a place/location while sitting behind a computer. Like such:

How does Google capture the Street View images?

Google started out licensing the panoramic content from a company called Immersive Media. Immersive Media actually captured 360 degree video and the extracted frames from the video to create their panoramic images.
Google and Immersive Media have since parted ways and Google has built their own camera system, which can be seen mounted on top of a Toyota Prius in this picture:

Not much is known about the particular specs for the current Street View cameras, but the basic principle is to have  a bunch of fairly wide angled lenses pointing in different directions.

A GPS unit then triggers the cameras to take a shot at specified distances and the resulting images are stitched together to create a spherical panorama.

(Off course it’s a bit more technical than that and we can be sure that lasers are used to gather very accurate data about the landscape and buildings and that they might even be taking 360 degree video in the process …. but that’s a topic for another post.)

What are the privacy concerns surrounding Google Street View?

Most of the ‘arguments’ put forward on the internet  fall into three categories:

1. People aggrieved by the fact that they are captured in places they don’t want other people to know they were.

- the guy passed out on the street after a heavy night out
- the women going to a shelter/center for domestic abuse
- the man entering the sex shop  (by the way: these are all referring to real examples)

2.  People feeling the privacy of their homes/neighbourhoods are intruded upon:

- some are uncomfortable about the idea of the whole world being able to ’drive down their street’
- others feel that “the government could see the books on their shelves” and use the information to discriminate against them (as reported in this New York Times post)

3. People worried about criminals using the imagery to plan crimes.

- scanning a street for houses with ‘security vulnerebilities’
- seeing toys in the drive way could give them clues about the fact that there are children living in the house

My take on the privacy concerns:

To be honest, I was quite disappointed to see the weak arguments against Google Street View put forward on several blogs and particular in mainstream media.

People were quoted as saying silly things like: “What if they make it real time? “  – without reporters pointing out that it’s impossible.

Also, being afraid of a static image that might capture the books on your shelves, while Google and your Internet service provider can track almost every site you visit on the Internet is a bit … let’s say : unbalanced.
Add to that the fact that most major cities have almost every square inch covered with CCTV camera’s and that there are in fact people in dark rooms looking at satellite images of much higher quality  than Google Earth, then most of the arguments seem to fall flat.

Public space is public space and when you decide to visit an adult books store in a public space, you should know that there is the risk that someone might see or capture you – manage your risk and handle the responsibility that comes with your right to freedom of association.

In short, if you don’t want to get captured passed out on the side walk – don’t get passed out on the side walk.

Yes, it is your right to pass out on a (public) side walk, but if you do so – be a grown up and take responsibility for exercising that right.

That been said …… as a question of law and ethics, there is always the guideline of what a ‘reasonable man’ (or woman) would do or would expect in a specific situation and it is here where Google does overstep a very sacred boundary.

Yes, they try and blur the faces of people and number plates in the pictures and do have a ‘report this picture’ on every image as well, but I do feel that they could and should go a decent, lets say reasonable, step further.

I’ll take myself as an example to illustrate:
I have the privilege of living in a ‘leafy neigbourhood’. Our house does not have a wall around it (another privilege), but we’re lucky enough to have a row of large trees on the boundry of the property.
The effect is that although you can see into my bedroom from the road, you can only do so from one or two specific places and even then, you’ll have to be 3 meters tall.

Because I know this and am a reasonably lazy man, I simply take a quick peak through the window before I change my clothes or jump into the shower.
Although there are usually some cars driving by, there is no way anybody will be able to see me or take a picture of me if they don’t stop at exactly the right spot and have a high definition, quick firing camera elevated to about 3 meters.

Being a reasonable man, I know that no-one would do that…..

Except – that is exactly what Google Street View does and it can leave a reasonable man, like myself, in a difficult position.

So – I am of opinion that Street View can be intrusive and that there is some merit to those who feel their privacy is at stake. The solution though is not to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water and and ban Google Street View, it’s simply to let people like me know that Google will be driving down my street with an ‘unreasonably’ high-end camera today.

Two arguments against this suggestion are:

1. It is practically and financially impossible to contact everyone in a neighbourhood before you move through.
Well, that is Google’s problem and I’m sure they can find a solution if we ‘ask’ them to do so.
Putting up notice boards informing residents will go a long way and allow Google to engage with local real estate agencies – which will be mutually benificial in the long run anyway.

2. It does not ‘protect’ me when I’m in a public place other than my neigbourhood street, because I don’t need or want to keep track of where Google is drving today.
In the odd case that you are ‘caught’ doing something you would not want others to see, first, grow up and take responsibility, and secondly, as soon as Google Maps releases Street View, go check out every strip club and adult book store to see if you were captured – and flag the image so that Google knows you take offense – they will take it down.

In summary….

I’m of the opinion that Google Street View is a MARVELOUS innovation.
That it’s a great tool to enhance industries like tourism and real estate.

That South Africans should be excited at the opportunity of showcasing our beauty and diversity to the world and that we’ll finally be able to prove that there are in fact no lions in the streets.

I am also of the opinion that Google could have and should go through a bit more trouble to engage with local communities and respect their privacy by disclosing exactly what they are doing and when they plan to do it.
It is the right thing to do and they will get a great return on investment in terms of word of mounth marketing and even greater uptake in terms of the use of Google Maps.

In the mean time, I promise to draw my curtains when changing clothes…. the public has rights too, you know.

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