Google says it’s happy to remove sensitive images of Toronto residents captured on its newly-launched Street View, but says it’s less inclined to remove photos that simply paint the city in an unflattering light.
The issue surfaced on Wednesday, Street View’s Canadian launch date, when the site’s image depicting Christie Pits Park was found to include the massive, temporary dump located there during the 39-day civic strike this summer.
On the sidewalk in front of the dump, which was housed in the park’s skating rink, a cyclist can be seen taking a picture of the trash pile. A note written in chalk on the sidewalk reads “Parks are not dumps” in capital letters.
Google says it usually removes images of citizens and their property that appear on the site within 24 hours after it hears from a concerned individual.
But a representative from the online giant says it’s unlikely to take down the dump pictures even though some may find them embarrassing to the city’s image.
“If a request comes in for more cosmetic reasons, we might not remove the imagery at hand,” Google Canada’s Tamara Micner told CP24.com on Wednesday.
“Our decision to delete such images would depend on whether the concern was privacy or security-related.”
Google Street View allows users to see three-dimensional, photographic landscapes of city streets.
Its Canadian roll-out includes street views for 12 Canadian cities: Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, Halifax, Hamilton, Vancouver, Quebec City, Squamish, Kitchener, Waterloo, Ottawa and Whistler.
The views can be accessed online through Google Maps. The Canadian launch comes after several cities in the United States, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand and Europe were already documented for the service, starting in 2007.
While the access to detailed photos of homes, businesses and public spaces has caused privacy concerns for some, others maintain it is a useful tool for navigating a new area.
“You can see my house, my cars and even myself,” wrote Moe Rahman in a comment on CP24.com. “I am planning to sue these Google guys. Privacy is a huge issue.”
Meanwhile, Alvin writes, “There is no privacy issue. Any image outside of your home is public. This is (an) excellent (way) to save time/gas before you venture out to somewhere.”
Google has been fast to respond to privacy concerns by agreeing to blur all faces and licence plates shown on Street View, which it has been doing since 2008.
(With files from The Canadian Press)
To check out your street, search Toronto on Google maps and click on the yellow person icon to switch to street view.
Let us know if you make any interesting sightings in the pictures of our city!
