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How Does Google’s New ‘Street View’ Get Illegal Pics?
I was showing Jeffrey the new Google Street view function of Google Maps. I was showing our office when I realized that the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel was “blue.” That means you could view it in street view. I was shocked! Since 9/11, it’s very clearly and prominently indicated on both sides of the tunnel that cameras are not permitted in the tunnel. I wonder how Google gets authorization for these street view images? Or maybe they didn’t. Do you know?
Others are asking if Google is spying on their cat (who’s definitely not barking). Is this evil?
About the author
Bryan is the co-founder of FutureNow. He is the co-author of Call to Action, Waiting For Your Cat to Bark and Always Be Testing. You can friend him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter (@TheGrok).
More articles from Bryan Eisenberg
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May 31st, 2007
6:30 am
Google Maps is spying on my cat, says freaked out BB reader…
BoingBoing reader Mary Kalin-Casey says, The new Google Maps zoom feature zooms all the way into my living room window. See cat on cat perch. I’m all for mapping, but this feature literally gives me the shakes. I feel like I need to close all my curt…
May 31st, 2007
6:47 am
Lots of potential for abuse here – I’ve been looking through the list here – http://www.streetviewr.com – lots of opportunity for getting sad at you know who..
May 31st, 2007
8:32 am
Wired’s having a contest to find the best/worst uses of this tool. In addition to Bryan’s find, it seems it didn’t take long for people to spy on sunbathers and jaywalkers.
May 31st, 2007
8:50 am
Google Street Maps is HOT…
So imagine for some reason that you wanted to know if tourists really rode horse-drawn “carriages” through central park. Google Maps with a new Street View option lets you do just that, and even hyperlink it:
I was wondering when the foot…
May 31st, 2007
10:20 am
[...] Eisenberg says, We just posted on our blog pictures of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel where cameras are not permitted since 9/11 but street view [...]
May 31st, 2007
8:37 pm
[...] Eisenberg says, We just posted on our blog pictures of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel where cameras are not permitted since 9/11 but street view [...]
May 31st, 2007
11:20 pm
And another site to track all this stuff – http://streetviewvoyeur.com
June 1st, 2007
5:25 am
Scenes Through the Eye of Google…
Is that someone’s cat in a living room window? And a neighbor taking out the garbage? Wait — The Battery Tunnel in Brooklyn. Haven’t cameras been banned from there since 9/11? And is that a robbery in progress…
June 1st, 2007
1:36 pm
Google Photos Stir a Debate Over Privacy…
Others pointed to pictures of cars whose license plates were clearly readable. One pointed to images captured inside the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, a controversial location for photography in this high-security era…
June 1st, 2007
8:38 pm
[...] Bryan's post on Google's StreetView product and all of the related stories from Boing Boing to Wired to the New York Times is both exciting and perhaps a bit scary at the same time. [...]
June 1st, 2007
10:06 pm
[...] interesting point was made by Brian Eisenberg. Did Google get clearance to photograph the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel? Since 9/11, cameras have not [...]
June 1st, 2007
10:13 pm
Can you really ban pictures from a public place like a tunnel? Putting all the signs up in the world doesn’t make it illegal.
Anyone want to start a website of banned pictures? Everyone should send their pictures of the tunnels and bridges to the website.
June 1st, 2007
4:51 pm
You know, seeing a licence plate in a picture is no different then seeing them when you’re out driving. It’s public information!
June 1st, 2007
5:57 pm
Ellbee,
It’s not a matter of seeing other people’s license plates. Sure, you can do that anywhere. It’s an ongoing homeland security measure that attempts to thwart terrorist attacks on bridges and tunnels–particularly the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and the Lincoln Tunnel post 9/11 for obvious reasons. Hope that helps!
June 1st, 2007
7:19 pm
well i did some googling and it seems some one has bought http://bannedgooglestreetviewimages.com/
June 1st, 2007
7:20 pm
well it looks like some one has bought bannedgooglestreetviewimages.com
June 2nd, 2007
4:44 am
It seems odd that they could make taking pictures of a ‘public place’ illegal.
To address concerns of privacy and for the sake of operating system competition I wrote a post on the Google Maps Zoom Feature and what it could be renamed.
June 3rd, 2007
8:05 am
I added all the best “Google Street View” here : http://www.geo-trotter.com/cat-street-view.php.
June 5th, 2007
7:45 am
[...] problema semmai riguarda quelle foto che non dovrebbero esistere, come quelle dei luoghi in cui le riprese sono vietate per [...]
June 8th, 2007
4:14 pm
[...] spy-cam network with Google Street View. See how it works or see it in action. More on this: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | [...]
June 8th, 2007
5:47 pm
[...] more on: boingboing.net ; consumerist.com ; grokdotcom.com ; slate ; freakonomics previous post: « Weblog Cogmios celebrates his 7500th [...]
July 23rd, 2007
1:14 pm
What amazes me is how many people ASSUME that Homeland Security has banned pictures of bridges and tunnels. There are NO homeland security laws currently in place that prohibit photography (except for certain military installations) – the general rule is that if you can see it you can photograph it! In New York there are laws that motorists must obey all posted signs on a bridge or tunnel. If you take a picture the charge is “disobeying a sign”. The constitutionality of those signs is highly questionable and may be challenged soon.
September 12th, 2007
1:00 pm
[...] waves — a mention in The New York Times, even — after pointing out that it lets you illegally* see inside of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel (a point which has been disputed in the [...]
March 14th, 2008
12:19 pm
That is NOT the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. That is an area where the FDR wraps around the souther edge of lower Manhattan to get to the West Side Highway. There is a park above this and the drive can’t be more then 20 seconds.
April 9th, 2008
3:32 am
Ban google street view. Have we lost our minds? arent we in a war on terror? would this be permitted on sept 12? or is the war on terror bs? ask yourself.
youtube.com/mikere
come to see the video
July 10th, 2008
4:46 pm
I checked up on an apartment I lived in a few months ago. You can no longer see my cat litter container in the window, my air conditioner is not in the middle window, there are new curtains, and my car is no longer outside. If I had a psycho stalker ex, they could keep checking these street view updates at all the places I’m likely to be and find clues as to where I am. Now anyone that knows me well can look up my old address on street view and know that I don’t live there anymore. You could probably check potential addresses of places I might be and find clues of whether or not I’m there. Or perhaps even see me outside of it. Now that is freaky. What about people in the witness protection program? I’m just saying… there’s gotta be limits somewhere.
August 20th, 2008
9:40 pm
Are you kidding me? War on terror? Post 911? Give me a break already? Propagandist b.s. and most of the u.s. has bought into the campaign. (Which is pretty darn effective, sadly.) There is no such thing as homeland security. Man, does no one read history or remember it?
Truth be known, I do know about a stalker in L.A. that did break in and hassle someone I know here, thanks to Google. Wee haw. Can you say Night Stalker? Summer of Sam? I smell another Spike Lee Joint coming on.
But the bigger question has yet to be answered, where the HELL are they getting the pics and how? And who gave the bastards permission to publish the images without consent?
This will be interesting in the courts. I wonder what will happen in the case of rape, stalker laws, and such. Google could be held accountable and liable, if at least financially.
Something perhaps worth pondering after our initial paranoia.
September 4th, 2008
9:07 am
I work for city gov and we are beginning the process of photo acquisition. We are wondering who Google buys there imagery from for Google Earth/Maps application. Does anyone out there know? If so would you please share that with me by replying to morrislg@owensboro.org
Thanks
Lance
November 24th, 2008
8:21 pm
I would like to know how to opt out of Google Street View. I have a stalker and I do NOT want them to have information on me, randomly taking photos (who takes them?!) when I might have my blinds open.
Doesn’t anyone see this as an invasion of privacy??? I see this as a huge invasion of privacy. The world of the internet, but most importantly, GOOGLE AND GOOGLE MAPS, AND GOOGLE STREET VIEW, IS RIFE WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF ABUSE.
December 5th, 2008
7:44 pm
Wow, is all I can say about the majority reaction here. True American ignorance shines it’s brightest on the internet. There’s so much concern over what can be viewed through these views… Yet they come from the street. If you’re doing actions that you don’t wish to be viewed from the streets then go ahead and close your curtains. If you’re doing compromising actions in your living room with the curtains open then that’s your fault if someone sees it. How is this technological step-up a horrible thing? I found it incredibly useful when traveling through a small town, to use for gaining some visual familiarity with my travel route. Google isn’t spying on your cat, you watching the television, or people sunbathing. They’re simply giving a view of a public area and whatever was viewable from that point at that time is published on the internet. If you want to virtually scream across the internet that your rights are being pillaged maybe you should have called your representative about the Patriot Act. Maybe you should show a little concern about people prying in your business from inside your house and not from the street where anyone with the ability to stand on a sidewalk can sit and stare at your cat all day. Get something real to be afraid about and save the world from your pathetic worries.
December 17th, 2008
11:27 pm
My Lord thank you Brett V. I can’t recall when I have read a less intelligent and more psuedo-paranoia string of post. “Witness protection” “I have stalker” “rapes” & “court cases” I-G-N-O-R-A-N-C-E. Brett V. is 100% right, If I drove down the street and you were there would that be illegal. Everything is done from the road. Worry about the global warming not who is looking in your blinds.
January 12th, 2009
3:33 am
Yes I feel I am being spied on. On google maps you can find me walking down the street pushing a stroller with my 3 kids.I am a little creeped out by that.
March 8th, 2009
12:26 pm
You people are kidding me, right? You sit here while our country in in a downward sprial and you are crying about streetview pics. Good lord trust me no terrorist are looking to attack us now. They see we are already falling, like the Roman Empire. Worry More about wha the Government is doing and less about what google is!!!!!!
March 9th, 2009
12:17 pm
Google street views are a great tool for bikers trying to map a safe ride (e.g. large shoulders) in a car-centered landscape. Keep up the good work, Google!
March 9th, 2009
12:17 pm
(bicycle riders)
March 24th, 2009
7:25 am
This is pathetic, so you can see a few faces, a few number plates and a few other everyday occurances. People always go up in arms when the next big thing comes along, and funnily enough it’s usually the same people.
Bottom line is, if you want EVERY SINGLE FACE blurred out on google, then that’s just the same as wanting EVERY SINGLE FACE blurred out in the real world. somebody spotting you on a website is just the same as somebody spotting you walk past on your way to work. I’d say atleast 5,000 people see your face a day in the real world, whereas on google maps that figure would be more like 100 a day. Stop whining and shut up. If terrorists wanted to blow up new york they’d ave just as much luck with google street view as they would with a standard street map.
I wish you people would put things into context before you all start raising a fuss.
May 5th, 2009
7:07 pm
They even have Area 51!!
June 6th, 2009
4:15 pm
If you want to find out how Google gets all those pictures, the explanation is on Wikipedia. Checkk out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View
June 13th, 2009
4:53 pm
The only people that have something to worry about are people who are frequenting places where they don’t wanna be caught. Maybe the cheating husband should park his car down the block rather than risk his suspecting girlfriend seeing it parked in her sister’s driveway on street view. But if she’s paranoid enough, and he’s stupid enough, she’ll drive by the house herself!
If the guy’s coming out of a strip club and happens to get his picture taken, then he’s just plain unlucky, or he’s a frequent flyer.
June 13th, 2009
4:58 pm
The only thing that anyone has to worry about in their neighborhood is documentation of something that HAPPENED IN THE PAST. What’s there to worry about? A picture of you walking with your kids? SO?? The image isn’t immediately forwarded to predators in your area, in time for them to hunt you down!
And if you have a full-fledged stalker, trust that they won’t be satisfied looking at a pic taken whenever of your second story apartment. They’ll be camped out, watching you in real time. A grainy, dark pic of your cat isn’t gonna cut it.
If anything, the advent of street view is a wake-up call as to just how exposed people are to the world. If you live in a street-side apartment, you need to re-assess how much pivacy you actually have, and how much you want. Get those shades that open from the top down, or something, because people walking down the street can most likely see a lot better with their bare eyes than that low-resolution image.
June 13th, 2009
5:35 pm
Doing an interview, having your picture taken, putting her real name on the original “spying cat” complaint- this does not sound like a woman concerned with privacy!
If she’s truly worried about the possibility of stalkers, then she shouldn’t have proceeded in engaging the media! Because becomming “known” as a public figure opens you up to public support, public dissent, and mentally unstable people who might “love” or hate you so much that they can’t help but come after you with a deadly weapon. It happens all the time, but considerably more so with public figures, and less with the general public.
Her fifteen minutes will expire, and she’ll widely be forgotten about by the general public.. except, perhaps by the people she’d most like to avoid.