Google Street View is two sides of the same coin, helping netizens as well as violating their privacy. The trail of protests is long and there are many improvements too.
A resident's protest in Tangerang is perhaps the latest example of disapproval of Google Street View. Over the years, these protests have taken place all over the world.
Google Street View launched in 2007 as an innovation that offers 360 photos of the world's streets. In 2008, there were protests from residents of North Oaks, Minnesota who did not want photos of their settlements on Google Street View.
Google even deleted the photo. That same year Google began developing technology to blur faces in Google Street View.
In 2009, it was Privacy International's turn to file a complaint against Google with the Office of the British Information Commission regarding the identity of the person photographed by Google Street View. There are a number of other complaints in America, England, Japan and Switzerland.
In 2010, Google began to officially roll out the technology to blur people's faces in Google Street View. In the same year Google Street View stopped operations in Australia for a year following an investigation by local authorities.
In 2011, according to the IB Times, Google Street View also stopped taking photos in India at the request of the police. In 2012, the New York Times reported, a Swiss court asked Google to reduce the height of the camera, so as not to peek behind people's fences.
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In 2014, Google Street View had started a policy to blur homes, according to user requests, according to The Guardian. Since then, the online privacy violation complaint mechanism in Google Street View has been recognized and implemented.
But that doesn't mean it's all without problems. In addition to privacy issues, there is another Google Street View problem related to places that are sacred to certain ethnicities. In October 2020, the Australian government asked Google Street View to remove photos of Uluru, a site sacred to the Anangu Tribe of Aboriginal ethnicity in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.
Google did not stand still. They responded to these various protests by improving technology that could automatically blur faces and car license plates. There is also a complaint channel for users through the Report A Problem feature.
The Report A Problem feature in Google Street View seems to be the solution that Google has chosen since 2014. However, it means that the public should also know that there is a feature like this that they can use to complain.