Google has announced it will allow people to Opt-Out of its newly launched Street Views.
Google Maps‘ Street Views option shows 360 degree street level photographs, including people on the street. It’s another step toward global transparency, or invasion of privacy, depending on how you see it (or how you’re being seen). Legally, Courts have held that there is no “expectation” of privacy in public places. Yes, but maybe there is an expectation that your image will not be permanently viewable and reproducible worldwide on the internet.
According to Google:
Street View only features imagery taken on public property. This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see walking down the street, …We provide easily accessible tools for flagging inappropriate or sensitive imagery for review and removal…We routinely review takedown requests and act quickly to remove objectionable imagery.
Hmm…sounds alot like Zillow’s Rich Barton’s response to my question whether Zillow would allow an owner to prevent a stranger from advertising the fact on Zillow that their home was “for sale”. (Note: see all comments in this link for context):
That would be akin to an owner or an agent asking the public to please stop talking about the fact that a home is for sale and at what price, be it in the coffee shop, while dropping the kids off at baseball practice, or on Zillow. We think spotlighting conversations on Zillow that are already taking place in the real world continues a fantastically positive trend towards transparency in an historically opaque marketplace. So, unless contributions by Zillow community members are incorrect, unproductive, or off topic, we will let their contributions stay.
David G added the following rationale for Zillow’s online Q&A of homes:
We view Home Q&A as an online incarnation of the conversation that’s happening off-line in neighborhoods today. WITH that assumption, it’s easy to answer your questions because Zillow mirrors the real world (emphasis added).
Really? Are offline verbal conversations (usually between a small group) the same as online written Q&A, which can be seen by hundreds or thousands, and reverberate in cached perpetuity? If Zillow home Q&A mirrors the real world, methinks we’re at a carnival. (Note to David G: a humorous (pictorial hyperbolic?) metaphor to make the point online Q&A differs substantially from offline reality).
Well, thanks to Kevin Bankston, and perhaps others, Google has recognized it may be legal, but irresponsible, to deny an individual’s request not to be included in its master plan. I guess Google is serious about its branding truths: Focus on the end user and You can make money without doing evil.
Now everyone knows I’m being evicted. This is probably a construction notice but you get the idea (via Streetviewspy.com)
Will Rich Barton see the logic, and owner/listing agent goodwill, in allowing owners and listing agents to opt-out of
- inaccurate zestimates (they mislead buyers)
- participation of their home in Q&A (I don’t want to monitor this & I don’t trust your flagging system)
- allowing others to say their home is for sale (I should control how my home is marketed)
- agent ads on my home (my home is not bait as a lead generation tool)
….. all of which are for the world to see in perpetuity on Zillow.com?
Sources:
Cameras everywhere, even in online maps. (ZDnet)
Want off Street View...? (Wired)
Related Posts:
Unzestimate My Home: Will Zillow Let Owner’s Opt-Out?
Will Zillow Let Listing Owners Opt-Out Now?
The Human Listing Site, Zillowfying Your Privacy Under the Guise of Transparency.
Comment of the Day.
Technorati Tags: Google Maps, Google Street Views, Zillow, Opt Out
