This week as part of Google’s move to
further penetrate the Nigerian market
through its ever innovative products it held
the Google for Nigeria event where it
announced among other things the launch
of the Lagos on Street View.
And so finally, Nigeria joins the long line of
countries entering the debate on the privacy
and data protection issues that have
plagued this otherwise useful tool. Google
reports that it intends to extend the Street
View to other Nigerian states immediately it
has permission from the states to do so
which implies that Lagos state has given
permission for the roll out of Google Street
View in Lagos. This alone raises
fundamental issues about the process for
adopting the technology in Nigeria but first
what exactly is Google Street View.
What is Street View?
Google Street View is a web based
application which augments Google Maps by
providing panoramic street level images of
various cities around the world. It was
launched in 2007 in several cities in the
United States, and has since expanded to
include cities and rural areas worldwide.
Anyone from anywhere in the world can
zoom in and see what the street actually
looks like to passersby. Google uses roving
vehicles that drive down the street taking
millions of digital photographs to collect the
necessary data. The Street View application
pieces these photographs together along
with controls that allow users to step down
the street, or turn their View to different
angles.
What are the issues debated worldwide on
Google Street View?
Google Street View is usually soldfor its
usefulness in exploring public spaces, parks,
museums, hotels and places of historical,
cultural, and religious interest. However,
questions about security and privacy have
hampered the adoption of this technology
in many cities around the world.
Privacy Issues
Arguments are ongoing in the international
community as to whether the capture of
people in a public place by a photograph
without their permission constitutes an
invasion of their right to privacy. Google’s
position however has been that in a public
place, an individual cannot reasonably
expect a right to privacy. For example, if a
person is accidentally captured in a
photograph of a public place, say a historical
monument, taken on a smartphone,he
cannot claim that it violates his privacy.
Street View pictures only show what is
visible to anyone walking down a street.
Private areas such as university campuses or
amusement parks are added by agreement
with the property owner.
However Street View represents a unique
situation where a photograph is taken
without either a warning to the individual
or the individual’s consent, and can be
accessed by anybody, anytime, anywhere,
forever.
Further, although Street View images are
captured in public areas, there have been
instances of Google Street View cars driving
on private roadways and complaints about
images captured through windowsraising
security and exposure concerns. Complaints
like this led to Google accepting to
automatically blur people’s faces and car
license plates to protect their
privacy.Further, blurring can be requested
by private individuals for faces, an entire
house or car, and removal of images can be
requested according to Google Street View’s
privacy policies.
Although its policies prohibit adding
panoramic photos that are an invasion of
privacy to Street view, there is no definition
of what constitutes an invasion of privacy.
Google passes the initiative to find and
report privacy violations. Oftentimes, the
harm has been done before the affected
person finds out and reports it. It is
impossible for a person to constantly check
Google Street View to ensure that no
compromising images of them have been
caught. Images on Google Street View may
be from a few weeks to a few years old. It is
hardly possible for people to go back that
far in time and ensure that their privacy is
not infringed.
Indiscriminate Wi-fi Data capturing
While capturing Street View Images, it has
been shown that Google vehicles also
monitor and collect information from Wi-Fi
networks. In several cases Google has
captured detailed personal information
while monitoring unsecured networks.
Many countries, including the United States
and Canada, have expressed concerns to
Google about the capture of Wi-Fi data
during Street View mapping.
In agreeing to settle a case brought by 38
states involving the Street View project in
the United States, Google has admitted
violating people’s privacyduring its Street.
