France — A Frenchman feels that he has become the village laughing stock after Google’s controversial Street View cars have captured him urinating in his own front yard, and is now dragging the company into court for invading his privacy and publishing the embarrassing image.
Already laden with heavy criticism about changes to its privacy policy that allow the Internet search behemoth to delve deeper into the lives of its users, Google is now being sued over a Street View image that shows an unidentified man in France urinating in his own yard.
The Frenchman in question, who is aged around 50 and lives in a village of some 3,000 people in the Maine-et-Loire region, however, is not especially thrilled about being included in Google’s 360-degree, street-level mapping service.
According to Reuters, the unnamed man is suing Google for photographing him in the compromising position, in which locals have identified him despite his face being blurred out. The man is demanding 10,000 euros in damages, asserting that Google violated his right to privacy. The man is also demanding the offending photo be removed from Google Maps’ Street View feature, according to Ouest France (translation).
“Everyone has the right to a degree of secrecy,” the man’s lawyer, Jean-Noel Bouillard, told Reuters. “In this particular case, it is more amusing than serious. But if he had been caught kissing a woman other than his wife, he would have had the same issue.”
In the Maine-et-Loire region, some have large gardens. (Credit: Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)
The French whiz master is sadly, just one of numerous people caught in embarrassing or bizarre situations by Google’s prying, human-driven Street View cars have captured something that was not really theirs to see, such as an apparently naked man emerging from the trunk of a car, couples kissing, and men entering “adult entertainment” stores. Google’s Street View has also caught several people in embarrassing situations in other parts of the world, including the Canary Islands, Spain, and the U.K.
According to his lawyers Bouillard–“The man thought he was concealed from view by his closed gate as he relieved himself in November 2010. But Google’s lens caught him from above his gate as it passed by,” as claimed by a Reuters report.
Google was entangled in a similar incident in the past for taking Street View photos that feature residential yards. In 2009, Google had to re-shoot Street View images for 12 Japanese cities after complaints that the Street View cars were mounted too high and shooting over fences into private homes. To appease disgruntled residents, Google lowered its cameras by 16 inches for the Japanese Street View do over.
In fact, Google Inc.’s Street View cars are spread over in some 30 countries and is available in France since 2008, allows users of Google Maps to also view photos of streets taken by its camera cars, which have cameras hoisted on frames on their roofs.
Moreover, Google’s lawyer in the case, named by local daily Ouest France as Christophe Bigot, was not immediately reachable, but the newspaper quoted he was pleading that the case should be declared null and void.
A court in Angers, France, is due to make a ruling on the Street View urination complaint on March 15.
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