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If I remember correctly, one of the main concerns was that burglars could just browse down a street and look for buildings that seem to have weak protection (old windows, no fences, ...). That's why we don't have street view here in Austria.
I guess, here in the US we have a different view of privacy, and many don't even know what privacy means.
A short and easy definition could be that privacy is what people believe they have lost when they complain about their privacy being infringed.
Paradoxically, perhaps, I think Americans have a strong sense of personal privacy, but a limited sense of community privacy, in the sense that we don't tend to accept the idea that a neighborhood or community should be able to close itself off to all outsiders. Not everyone loves gated communities and what they represent. On the other hand, I think the Anglo-American common law precedents are much stricter with regard to trespassing on private property than their European counterparts.
In this context, FWIW, I'd say that my own idea of privacy is limited to that which has to do with my dealings with others and with my personal life. My name is on the register outside my building and that doesn't bother me one bit, in the same way that anyone might see me enter or exit the building. Naturally, it would bother me if someone was really spying on me, that is, watching the house over a period of time, but a GSV image is just a snapshot. A big reason for my careless attitude is that I still have the right to deny entry to anyone I do not wish to see. I obviously can't keep local motorists and pedestrians out of my street, so by the same token I don't care that I can't keep the rest of the world's hundreds of millions, if not billions, of Internet users from seeing it on GSV. What do I care if someone in Bangalore or even Germany can see the street I live on? The farther away somebody is, the less chance there is they could impact my life one way or the other.
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So, yes - blurring will protect those peoples privacy. Keep in mind that just because they can't completely hide from a very small group of people (those walking/driving down their street) does not make it OK for millions of people to see it on the Internet.
"OK for millions of people to see" in this case being entirely subjective, and largely a question of who's looking at what. As of August 2010, prior to the limited launch of SV there, Germany had been the biggest user among countries that hadn't yet been added to the database. IOW, millions had no compunction about looking at the streets of other countries, though to be fair these Google users were presumably not the same ones scurrying to have their own houses blurred, or to ensure that the GSV cars stayed out of their communities entirely.
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Allowing less people to see it makes it more private, if not entirely private. And hey, if it makes THEM feel more comfortable, so be it.
And lastly - freedom is being able to say NO, even without a rational basis. I wonder what would you say if Google purchase those backscatter X-ray vans for even more intrusion?
It wouldn't be comparable. Nobody's seriously advocating that Google should be able to capture the interiors of our houses or look under our clothing.
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We already said YES to them on the airports.
I thought that due to the public's objections the TSA had to dial those back? I almost never fly so I wouldn't know.
Same with faces, cars license etc. Sure you can see them all in person, but they don't want you to search it online.
I agree about this sort of thing and always try to blur license plates and similar information out of the images I publish in my blog. By the same token, I avoid the inclusion of recognizable faces; if it does happen inadvertently I always ask them if they mind. So far, nobody has asked me not to use such imagery, but I continue to ask because it's the right thing to do.
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BTW: this is not an exact address of that building, but an approx area you can Google to see where the house is located.
irman: That building is standing left to Reuters Agency, right to ARD TV studio, and across the whole government area. Great spot to send a political message, thus in two languages.
Places like Berlin are always full of foreign travelers, like most major cities in that part of the world. English seems to be the second language of most people, so it makes a lot of sense.
If I remember correctly, one of the main concerns was that burglars could just browse down a street and look for buildings that seem to have weak protection (old windows, no fences, ...). That's why we don't have street view here in Austria.
Was there Street View at any time in Austria? I could swear that there was some GSV coverage in Vienna, at some point.
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