[1086] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] UK MP upset that Google won't unblur Street View
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Fri Jan 7 13:32:18 2011
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2011 10:14:08 -0800
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UK MP upset that Google won't unblur Street View photos without
court orders -- calls privacy laws "a waste of money."
http://bit.ly/e9GhEc (Thinq)
OK gang, this one made me chuckle out loud. Let's review. Google
blurs license plates in Street View photos as a privacy feature (and
deletes individual house images, etc. essentially on the demand of a
relevant party). I'd argue that the blurring algorithms already can
go too far (understandable, such blurring is not a trivial automation
process)-- often unnecessarily blurring out street numbers and signs,
etc.
So we have the anti-Street View authorities/groups in some countries
who (in their public statements at least) consider this extremely
useful tool to be just short of a Satanist device, in some cases even
now trying to demand that the original unblurred photos be rapidly
destroyed (which of course would make correcting inappropriately
blurred images impossible without reshoots).
OK, now the police come along in the UK and ask Google to hand over an
original unblurred license plate image. Google quite rightly says
"Sure, just show us a valid court order."
And that's just *too* much to ask according to Tory MP Heather
Wheeler, who wants Google to just quietly comply with whatever Her
Majesty's government asks, without all that "legal stuff" getting in
the way.
The moral is clear, and this isn't just a UK issue. Government
authorities are all too willing to block ordinary people from access
to all sorts of useful and important "public" data. But those same
authorities of course want access to that data on demand -- no muss,
no fuss, no judges, no laws getting in the way.
That, my friends, is the nascent face of tyranny.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com)
http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
Co-Founder, PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility): http://www.pfir.org
Founder, NNSquad (Network Neutrality Squad): http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP (Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance):
http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/lauren-buzz
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