Google Street View is 'greatest breach in the

[+and-then]

I had hoped you were being sarcastic when you made similar comments earlier in this thread. Apparently, that is not the case.

I find your stance on privacy to be a bit frightening.

"Innocent until proven guilty" is a cliche? Dear Lord, I hope you never serve as a jury member.

I'm sorry that you are unable to understand the analogy, but there is one to be made.

In the same manner that a person accused of a crime is innocent until proven guilty, peoples activities, beliefs, and actions that they do not put on public display should be kept private.

Only when there is reason to suspect they are up to no good do I then believe an organization should have the right to monitor one's activities.

Well, we certainly disagree here.

Simply because my phone calls can have audio of them recorded does not make it appropriate for others to do so. And to claim that all things that can be picked up on a detector are therefore "on display" is a bit far-fetched.

There is a difference between something being "on diplay" and something being on "public display."

If something isn't on public display then people should be allowed to believe it is private information without having to consider it reasonable for others to collect that information simply because there is a means that exists for them to do so.

I find this interesting. In a previous response you stated:

"Every local culture and society has their standards as to what is a reasonable (i.e. polite) level of privacy, and every culture has a level of intrusion which is considered above and beyond (such as peeking through windows), however, the general rule is that if it is on display, you do not have an expectation, nor a right, to privacy."

Yet here you are stating it would be ignorance on the sunbathing woman's part to expect privacy because she believes she is hidden away from view.

Do you then find it appropriate for a Peeping Tom to observe what he does simply because he found a vantage point in which he can view a nude woman coming out of the shower? Has he or has he not violated her privacy?

It seems to me that protecting your information on the internet by creating a password needed to access it is the equivalent of locking the doors to one's house as a means of preventing theives from entering.

This, however, did not stop Google from collecting peoples password protected information. So, like you state above, it would seem "there are much more serious crimes at work."

Hence the reason governments are filing lawsuits against Google for the means they used to obtain the type of information they had with their Street View vehicles.

Google does use the information they collect though to directly benefit themselves. They use it to steer advertisements to customers they have pinpointed out as taking interests in particular things.

Basically, me and you could go to the same website, but you would have advertisements shown to you that differ from the ones I get because Google has collected data on what we both appear to be interested in.

They currently are doing this through tracking what individuals search for on their search engine and other Google owned companies, such as YouTube.

What Google's Street View vehicles did went beyond the "simple collection" of data. It's not as if they simply took pictures of streets and houses, etc. They tapped into information people had stored on their computers. They collected their passwords and bank information, among other various amounts of information.

It is for that reason governments are filing lawsuits against Google. In other words, they believe Google violated their laws.

If you can't determine any other way in which a reference to Big Brother can be used then that is your short coming, not mine.

There are many people that are fully capable of understanding a reference to Big Brother as being "the government, or any other number of agencies or institutions, tracking your behaviour, beliefs, interests, and whereabouts."

You either aren't aware of the issue here, or you are purposely refraining from making mention of it.

Google Street View, during a period of time from 2006-2010, was doing more than simply taking pictures of houses, streets, landmarks, and access points.

They were collecting information off of peoples computers. The type of information they collected included peoples passwords and bank information, along with other things.

Yes. And the reason why is because I don't believe Google, or any other company, has the right to collect private information off my computer - especially when it comes to collecting passwords I use to access such information - regardless of their reasoning.

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