7 ms·
Google Street View returns to Germany after 10 Years
- black_13 3y ago[dead]
- wunderland 3y agoThis is a huge loss for privacy. Hopefully individuals will still be able to request their address be removed from the street view index.
- hrnnnnnn 3y agoFrom the article Like in other countries, it will be possible to opt out of Street View coverage with the option to pixelate your home or business. Google is starting with a blank slate, so anyone who obfuscated their house a decade ago will have to request it once more.
- mschild 3y agoIt mentions in the article they will.
- netrus 3y agoOf course that's possible, if only to calm the nerves of the public (I don't think there is a legal obligation). However, hardly anyone requested it for Apple's equivalent product.
- Xenoamorphous 3y agoDo you mean that thing that blurs a specific building? I’ve always thought that was a great example of the Streisand effect. It’s not like someone can’t walk/drive there and see it anyway.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- johnnyworker 3y agoThe point of not wanting photos of you or your house spread around the internet isn't to make it physically impossible to see you, but to restrict that privilege to the people you actually (want to) physically interact with.
- Xenoamorphous 3y agoI wonder how it works with condos and other places where multiple unrelated people live. I assume privacy wins and if one neighbour wants it blurred then it will be blurred even if others would prefer it visible.
- bnt 3y agoAs an inexperienced and anxious driver (from a tiny suburban / village area / town), Street View (and its alternatives) are god sent to me. I up front plan my trip, every twist and turn, especially in densely populated areas. I'm not used to driving in dense urban environments with multi-lane streets, so knowing what's gonna happen, when, and how it's going to look is immensely important to me to keep my anxiety under control.
- crazysim 3y agoI hope they also permit restoring addresses to street view as well. Apparently it's permanently removed in the US which is a bane for some who are trying to sell their house or have bought a house that was blurred and want it shown. https://support.google.com/maps/thread/5010142/i-want-to-unblur-the-image-of-my-house-how-do-i-go-about-removing-the-blurring?hl=en https://support.google.com/maps/thread/5010142/i-want-to-unb... It's a bit of a chilling effect for people who want to blur their house and not affect its value and could even be used nefariously.
- ryan69howard 3y agoWhere's the loss? Also, what if my neighbor removes my apartment building, but I want it to be on street view?
- quic5 3y agoApple already has recent street view of Germany and nobody cared.
- eps 3y agoThe objection comes from the nature of Google as a data vaccuming company with loose ethics.
- netrus 3y agoIt's brave to announce this over the summer, a classic time for minor topics dominating public discussion. So far, however, there has been no hysteria, so I guess their communication department knows what they are doing, or got lucky.
- globular-toast 3y agoThis is the depressing part about people fighting corporations. The corporations just keep on trying and they always win eventually. Well done Germany for setting them back a decade, though.
- mr_mitm 3y agoI've been seeing current pictures of my house (in Germany) and surrounding towns on Google Street View for at least four years now. They've been uploaded by some third party. No one cared in the slightest. I don't understand why this is news now.
- ido 3y agoAnecdotally, in Berlin almost all street view pics are from 2008. It's actually kinda nice to take a tour of the past that way sometimes!
- Marvy_a 3y agoGoogle Maps has a function to view older panoramas - "See more dates" button at the top left.
- roelschroeven 3y agoIt looks like that feature is going to be pretty limited in Germany. From the article: "Google is working closely with a German government privacy agency, ensuring that its imagery meets the country’s data privacy regulations. Among them is a requirement to delete older images, which means that you won’t be able to use Street View to travel as far back in time in Germany as in other countries once the new imagery is live."
- bspammer 3y agoHistorians 200 years from now are going to curse our name.
- netrus 3y agoThat kind of data should definitely preserved for future generations - national libraries and archives could be trustworthy guardians of such data that is only meant to be accessed again with some time delay. Or we encrypt it very well, throw away the key, and wait for computation to catch up :)
- phartenfeller 3y agoI don't understand why many people are upset about their building's facade being photographed, but are totally fine with satellite images. Or cameras getting installed everywhere and the European Union trying to get into people's phones for "security". At one point there was a debate against encryption because bad guys could benefit from it...
- rightbyte 3y agoGoogle has access to the pictures without the blur of faces and car plates and what not. It is very reasonable to not want a spyware company to roam your streets and record it.
- worklaptopacct 3y agoI think it's a uniquely German problem, because nowhere else in the EU did Google have to blur buildings. Having immigrated to Germany I can tell that Germans are pretty much privacy-obsessed, with strict regulations on CCTV (you will get in trouble if your camera points to the street) and hardly anyone having a social media account.
- Semaphor 3y ago> hardly anyone having a social media account. Not my experience at all. We are also often only privacy-obsessed, when there are big news articles about it.
- elminjo 3y agoI live in Berlin, and I have only one friend who has a Facebook account but doesn't even use it.
- corgihamlet 3y agoBut they probably all use Instagram.
- elpocko 3y agoI remember reading a newspaper article back then about a couple who explained how they just don't want to be seen on the internet. The article had photos of them in front of their house. I read it on the internet.
- Semaphor 3y agoThere were news articles insinuating that those pictures were live or close to it. The whole "discussion" back then was sad to see.
- wewxjfq 3y agoYou insinuate that all people opposing Street View were clueless idiots, the top comment fantasizes about a surveillance-loving crowd that's just upset with Street View... talk about a discussion that's sad to see.
- Semaphor 3y ago> You insinuate that all people opposing Street View were clueless idiots I did no such thing. But I experienced a lot of the discussion being about misconceptions spread by clueless journalists.
- expertentipp 3y agoThese cute nuanced "privacy" problems were engaging 5 years ago. Now Germany deservedly earned much more serious ones.
- Zetobal 3y agoThanks Tim Apple. Google would've remained hands-off until the German authorities were at their doorstep, begging for a solution, had it not been for Apple forcing their hand. The coverage here seems to be angled somewhat. To clarify, the issue was never widespread, but rather contained to a few hundred obfuscated properties. The complication arose when a privacy uproar hit the headlines, sparking conversations about wholesale censorship and spiraling mistrust in tech giants. As a result, politicians from all sides found it convenient to lay into Google. Google's response was pretty blunt - conform to our approach or we pack up. True to their word, they exited the market. Apple, however, swooped in last year and successfully launched their own street view service in Germany without a hitch, forcing Google's hand in reconsideration.