Where's Pegman?

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Contents


Introduction

Imagine you have a day off and decide to go and sunbath in a very nice and peaceful park with a good friend of yours...

A relaxing day in a park became very famous A relaxing day in a park became very famous


Would you be happy to see, one day by chance using Google Street View, that this picture is on the Web, accessible to anyone in the world? Would you be embarrassed if your boss could see it, wouldn't you?

This situation could happen to anyone of us. Doesn't matter if the subjects on the picture are aware of Google Street View or not. Google is taking pictures and publishing them without the consent and even informing that person.

The technological artifacts that have been developed in the last years have make it easier to collect data about third parties. The most famous example is Facebook where people themselves decide to publish private information on the Web and therefore that information is of public domain. However, in some situations, users don't like to share their personal information with others. As a matter of fact, nowadays people are becoming more and more sensitive to privacy infringements and the law is not enough powerful to deal with some problematics that are relatively “new” and not incorporated in classical law books.

Objectives & Methods

It is important to underline that this page was not written by someone that studied law. Therefore the analysis is rather general/technical than specifically focused on laws and regulations. Moreover, the lack of common regulations that applies worldwide makes it very difficult to analyze and discuss this issue because the norms on privacy deal with very different aspects (e.g.confidentiality law, banking secrecy and so on). Google Street View is already present in different countries, mainly in the most “technological” one.

An overview showing where Google Street View is already present An overview showing where Google Street View is already present


However, it is not possible to have a complete analysis of the uses and controversial privacy issues of each country where Google provides this service. In fact, this analysis will mainly focus on two different countries: Switzerland and Italy.

Privacy regulations

As said before, by now there aren't international agreements on privacy dealing with technological privacy issues. The privacy regulations that are in use are sometimes out-of-date and do not fit the interests and need of Internet users. The basic principle on privacy was issued in 1963 in the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 8 says that:

1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.
2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

It is important to stress that privacy is highly bounded to culture. For example, in anglo-saxon countries people are generally more open to share personal information about themselves whereas in European countries, people are more close. This leads to different approaches to privacy rules and norms and even nowadays, each country still has its own regulations on privacy. What is standard to most of the countries is the fact that there are monitoring bodies that check and monitor if the data protection regulations are followed (see the next section).

Let's have a look on two different countries: Switzerland and Italy. The second one is part of the European Union. However, for the privacy issues each member state still has its own regulations on privacy.

Privacy regulations in Switzerland

In Switzerland, the Civil Code is protecting broadly someone's personality. The Art. 28 is describing that

1. Where anyone is injured in his person by an illegal act, he can apply to the judge for his protection from any person who take a active part in effecting the injury.
2. An injury is illegal where it is not justificated by the injured person’s consent, by a predominantly private or public interest or by the law.

Therefore, the privacy infringements are evaluated by a judge and are ONLY allowed if the person gave the consent OR if there is a legitimate private or public interest. The Confederation, like other EU countries, has a commission called The Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) that is in charge, among others, of assisting the federal and cantonal authorities in the field of data protection, cooperating with data protection authorities in Switzerland and abroad and informing the public about findings and recommendations. However, in case of a privacy dispute, the citizen have to go to the judge as the FDPIC is only in charge of monitoring the situation for the general public and not for single subjects.

Privacy regulations in Italy

In Italy the situation, from a legal point of view, is not different. As in Switzerland, the Civil Code contains a general Article protecting the image of individuals Art. 10

Qualora l'immagine di una persona o dei genitori, del coniuge o dei figli sia stata esposta o pubblicata fuori dei casi in cui l'esposizione o la pubblicazione e dalla legge consentita,ovvero con pregiudizio al decoro o alla reputazione della persona stessa o dei detti congiunti, l'autorità giudiziaria, su richiesta dell'interessato, può disporre che cessi l'abuso, salvo il risarcimento dei danni.

Moreover, there is a commission called “Garante della privacy” that is monitoring the correct data processing in different fields, among them, also Internet data. In Italy, as in all other EU member states, it is the national commissioner that is in charge of judging disputes about privacy issues.

Google

Google is one of the company that in the latest years had such a big success that by now, it doesn't need to be introduced anymore. Everyone, from the youngest generations to middle-aged people, knows what Google is. Google is THE search engine and according to them, Google’s mission is to organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Of course, Google is not only a search engine but, in the latest years, it also provides different applications that are more or less popular. Among the most successful, there are Google maps, Youtube, gmail and Google docs. As a pioneer of new technologies, Google also launched different other web services such as Buzz, Orkut, Google Health etc. that had less success for different reasons. However, there is a common fate for all these applications: the Internet. Services offered by Google are mainly web-based but there are also other one that are Internet-based such as Google Earth.

When dealing with privacy issues, the World Wide Web is not exactly the most secure “place” where to store information. According to Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web

“[...]demonstrated a profound concept: that any person could share information with anyone else, anywhere”.

Sharing is therefore the core that lies on the Web. Because of that, big IT companies such as Google are quiet frequently under pressure as they do not guarantee enough privacy to the users. Many blogs and websites such as Google Watch are watching what Google is doing regarding the privacy. Since 1996, Google experienced the following criticisms on the privacy field:

  • Search-engine: usage of cookies that register users' queries for up to two-years.
  • gmail: Google publicly admitted that they're indexing and reviewing e-mails on their servers.
  • Google Dashboard: service that allows to store in a unique account all personal information from Google's applications such as Gmail, Youtube and so on.
  • Vague privacy policy

The criticisms illustrated before are still open questions. Google tries to collaborate with the different parties such as watchdogs and antitrust organizations even if Google is not willing to change too much.

Google Maps

Google Maps is one of the most successful web application developed by Google. Almost everyone, for different reasons, used Google Maps once in his/her life. Thanks to this app, it is possible to view maps directly from the browser, provided the fact that there is an Internet connection available. As time goes by, Google introduced more functionality such as get directions that allows the user to calculate how far two places from one other are, different view options such as satellite, maps or earth view and storing maps. Recently, the US company launched a very successful functionality that is facing a lot of criticisms on privacy: Google Street View.

Google Street View

As said before, Google Street View is an additional panoramic view featured on Google Maps and on Google Earth. When using Google Maps, for example, the user, when provided, can drag the so called Pegman to see in the real world how the place looks like. From 2007 on, Google started to take pictures with special cars driving around the USA. They then uploaded the pictures on Google maps and Google Earth. Of course they expanded their work and took pictures in other countries, covering the five continents (see map shown before). Having the opportunity to see in reality how a place looks like is very attractive to many users and therefore is one of the most successful functionality made by Google. According to Google, Google Street View can be used for different purposes:

Personal Uses

  • To explore the world
  • On the go with the mobile device. E.g. to see what a transit stop looks like.
  • To check parking availability and disabled access
  • To show your parents and friends where you live
  • To preview your vacation accommodation

Business Uses

Of course also companies can take advantage from Google Street View because it is possible to:

  • To promote your business
  • To show real estate listings and how the proprieties look like
  • To conduct virtual field trips for history and geography classes
  • To show the location of a news story for journalists
  • To scout event locations

As shown in these lists, Google Street View is a very interesting web service that appeals to a wide range of people. However, also companies can use it in an intelligent way to promote themselves for example by showing the shop window.

Technical features

As you may imagine, Google is not providing any technical details about how they take pictures. However, it is not difficult to find out what camera they use and how they stitch together pictures.

Google Cars and cameras

To take pictures, Google is using a very powerful camera: the $45000 Dodeca 2360, a softball-size camera that records from nearly a dozen different angles at 30 frames per second. The pictures can be stitched together to form single pictures with a high resolution: up to 2400 by 1200 pixel.

Google is usually taking pictures from cars. Thanks to carriers, cameras shot from a height of 2.75m. Areas that are not accessible to cars, like narrow streets, are reached by the so called Google Trikes. Moreover, they also used snowmobiles to take pictures for the Olympic Games in Whistler.

Different means of transport: trikes, cars and even snow mobiles Different means of transport: trikes, cars and even snow mobiles

Having GPS units for positioning, laser range scanners for the measuring, 3G/GSM/Wi-Fi antennas for scanning 3G/GSM and Wi-Fi hotspots, Google calculates the longitude and latitude, assigns the values to each place and saves all the pictures on their servers. Then, they re-map all pictures on Google Maps.

Face-blurring technology
In 2008, Google began to use an innovative face-blurring technology in order to make people' faces unrecognizable. On their page related to Google Street View's privacy, they state that

[...] if one of our images contains an identifiable face (for example that of a passer-by on the sidewalk) or an identifiable license plate, our technology will automatically blur it out, meaning that the individual or the vehicle cannot be identified.[...]

Moreover, if the user is not yet satisfied

[...] In addition to the automatic blurring of faces and license plates, we will blur the entire car, house, or person when a user makes this request for additional blurring. [...]

Even the famous Ireland's murals was blurred by the Google face-blurring software Even the famous Ireland's murals was blurred by the Google face-blurring software

Main issues on privacy

However, "All that glitters is not gold "

Here some examples of pictures taken by Google Here some examples of pictures taken by Google

Since Google Street View has been introduced, especially in Europe, this functionality faced many problems in the privacy field. Directly on the picture, users can report concerns to Google. However, it is not clear what criteria they use to judge if the picture can to be removed. According to the FDPIC the following privacy issues are not well managed by Google.

  • Problem of anonymity: Faces and vehicle registration numbers must be rendered anonymous. Even if Google is using a software to blur faces and registrations numbers, this is not enough as, according to an internal study by Google, researchers calculate the success rate to be no more than 89%. In Switzerland, therefore, as calculated by the FDPIC
At the error rate claimed by Google of 2%, that would imply that over 400,000 images are insufficiently blurred.

Therefore, more then few faces and numbers may be visible. Moreover, every if not recognizable, people may feel like they don't like to show themselves in a specific place such as in front of an adult store (see the picture shown before). For that kind of reasons, Google won't remove the picture because they feel like the person is already anonymous. Is it enough?

  • Problem of zoom function: through the zoom function it is furthermore possible to identify people in a crowd, for example. Moreover, because of the zooming option the face blurring is less effective.
  • Problem of undated still images and their publication online: being Google Street View a Web application, the images published are accessible to a wide range of people. That images can represent the reality in that specific moment but it doesn't mean that the image represent the real “routine” . Therefore some picture could mislead the reality.
  • Problem of camera shots from a height of 2.75m: the main purpose of Google Street View is to " view and navigate within street-level imagery". However, taking pictures from a height of 2.75m is not the normal view for a human being. For example, from 2.75m it is possible to take pictures beyond gardens that wouldn't be visible for a person walking on the street.
  • Problem of inadequate information: in Switzerland,
[...] the FDPIC demands that Google provides notice a week in advance of where its image capturing expeditions are to take place. A week's notice also has to be given prior to the publication of new images.
Only by informing in advance it is possible for people to be aware of Google Street View.
  • Wi-fi' Spy Data: while taking pictures around the globe, Google also recorded Wi-Fi hotspot locations. Moreover, the Wi-Fi location data was used to calculate the location of the Google cars when the GPS or cellular signal was unavailable or weak. The dispute began when it was discovered that the Google Street View cars were not just picking up the locations of the hotspots, but according to an article published by the International Business Times
[...] sometimes, when the car passed an unsecured network, it would pick up that data. [...]
Of course Google stated that the data gathering was accidental but it may be highly probable that they collected personal data. In some coutries Google destroyed the data. However,
[...] for legal reasons has to keep it in the United States. The company also noted that the data was collected from unsecured networks.[...]

Conclusion

Privacy is a personal matter. For somebody the issues presented in this page may not be a big deal meanwhile others may feel like Google Street View is too invasive. Where is the truth? Unfortunately there is no answer that can apply to everybody. As said before, privacy is also bounded to culture. In the USA, where Google started to take pictures, the population wasn't that bothered of people shooting everywhere. In Europe, instead, people complained from the beginning and there were big concerns about protecting the privacy of citizens. Is it therefore just bounded to cultural aspects? That would be too simple, of course.

Today, on one hand, our lives are completely overcrowded by technological artifacts and a lot of private information are on the Web. On the other hand, the legislation is not ready for dealing with technologies-related privacy issues. In fact, in all most all countries the rules and norms about privacy are not up-to-date because they have been ratified more than 50 years ago. How is it possible that the technological field is growing so fast meanwhile the legal field is still stuck in the 20th century?

What is clear is that Google is somehow taking advantage of it. Of course they had a very good idea but they implemented it without even asking if that could endanger somebody's privacy. Or maybe they asked themselves but knew that the privacy regulations are not enough strong to stop them of taking pictures around the world and publishing them on the Web without the consent.

Some institutions such as and the European Council and the European Parliament are trying to establish international regulations on privacy in the electronic communication sector. For example in 2002, they approved a directive in this field. However, this complies only to EU member states and not for all countries in the world. Another hurdle is the fact that big IT companies such as Google are based in the USA and are subject to the US laws. As it is well known, in the United States regulations on privacy are less strict as in Europe. Only time will tell if we'll finally manage to agree on international privacy agreements.

Resources

Technical-related documents were retrieved from the Net. Moreover, some articles and law related documents were taken from the slides of the course “Legal Issues in Technological Communication” led by Prof. Cottier at the University of Lugano.

The pictures used were taken from:

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