Global Voices Online - Culture and Privacy
While Google's grand vision of Google's mission of 'organizing the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful' is good at heart, the issue of being culturally sensitive is an extremely delicate en devour.A Japanese man has written an open letter [non-translated] to Google requesting that the images of 'residential roads of Japan's urban areas be removed' from Street View.
Even in the midst of trying to do good, feelings still get hurt.
And it's not just an issue across nations, but here with us right in our back yard. A couple in PA. is suing Google for violating their privacy by trespassing on their property. They claim that in order for a particular StreetView image to be taken, it had to have been taken from their drive way, which is marked as a private road.
What is Google's next step? And how far do they go in the quest of their mission? There's always more information out there [Google's Ten Things #7]. That statement extends Google's mission - they're not just organizing information on the web, they are organizing our lives. Yes, there is always more information out there. Where do you draw the line? Is that considered censorship or privacy? Tough questions.
posted by prentiss @ 8/10/2008 05:46:00 AM
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