NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] UK MP upset that Google won't unblur Street View photos without court orders
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