Google Maps Turns Cameras on Hollywood

Photo feature expands to SoCal; privacy concerns follow
By Heather McPherson,  Newser User
Posted Aug 8, 2007 12:11 PM CDT
Google Maps Turns Cameras on Hollywood
Maps Director John Hanke speaks from Google Earth's offices in New York, Tuesday, June 26, 2007, during the rollout of Google Earth Outreach, a new program designed to help nonprofit organizations use the computer search tool to illustrate and advocate for their work. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)   (Associated Press)

Google has added street-level views of Los Angeles and other cities to its popular mapping service, the Los Angeles Times reports, raising a chorus of privacy concerns that echoes objections to the feature elsewhere. Though a useful navigation tool, Street View "is a visual reminder of how our private spaces are really shrinking," one privacy advocate says.

Google stresses that the images are legal, but there's no denying that more people can eyeball sunbathers if a photo of them winds up on Street View. Although the company removes images it receives complaints about, the pictures may have been reposted elsewhere, making no adult-bookstore patron or sidewalk nose-picker safe from ridicule. (More Google stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X