A policeman from Argentina has been awarded $12,500 after he sued Google after a Street View camera filmed him unclothed in his yard, exposing him online. The incident led to ridicule despite a six-and-a-half-foot wall that protected him from public view.
For context, the tech giant argued that the policeman’s property wasn’t private enough to warrant the lawsuit. However, an appellate judge overruled a lower court, citing Google’s blurring policy as evidence of their duty to protect privacy. Judges blasted the blatant privacy invasion, stating that the image was taken in a private location.
This was demonstrated when the Appeals judges harshly criticized Google in their decision. The judges explained, “This involves an image of a person that was not captured in a public space but within the confines of their home, behind a fence taller than the average-sized person. The invasion of privacy … is blatant.”
Firing off a scathing rebuke, the judges wrote, “There is no doubt that in this case there was an arbitrary intrusion into another’s life,” there is “no justification for (Google) to evade responsibility for this serious error that involved an intrusion into the plaintiff’s house, within his private domain, undermining his dignity.”
Concluding their remarks, the Argentine officials declared, “No one wants to appear exposed to the world as the day they were born. It was not his face that was visible but his entire naked body, an image that should also have been prevented.”
As part of the controversial case, lawyers cited Google’s Street View policy, which outlines the steps taken to secure the policy. The document states, “We have developed cutting-edge face and license plate blurring technology that is designed to blur identifiable faces and license plates within Google-contributed imagery in Street View. If you would like us to blur your entire house, car, or body, submit a request using the ‘Report a problem’ tool.”
As we reported, this is far from the first time Google has been involved in a controversy concerning its maps tool. Just recently, a top-secret submarine was spotted on Google Maps. Where internet sleuths managed to spot the “Manta Ray,” an autonomous vessel docked at the Port Hueneme naval base in California.
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Speaking about the secret submarine, an expert said, “Our successful, full-scale Manta Ray testing validates the vehicle’s readiness to advance toward real-world operations after being rapidly assembled in the field from modular subsections. Shipping the vehicle directly to its intended area of operation conserves energy that the vehicle would otherwise expend during transit.”
Northrop Grumman, which manufactured the so-called Manta Ray, explained how the craft works. A press release stated, “A glider has a really intriguing propulsion mechanism, falling forward [with purpose] through the water all the time, both upward and downward. When Manta Ray needs to go up or down, it changes buoyancy by pumping seawater to change the weight of the vehicle.”
Adding more context, Structural Engineer Hayley Sypniewski said, “Our team had to be creative and innovative to find solutions that would work for a glider UUV as big as Manta Ray. It’s not a one-to-one scale with typical glider UUVs; because of its size, we added more buoyancy engines, a bigger payload bay, an enhanced towing system and an extremely efficient and large hull system.”