Last week I wrote about the controversy surrounding Google Street View and right of privacy concerns.  The original post can be read here.  A friend now points me to this article about a group of Japanese lawyers and professors, calling themselves Campaign Against Surveillance Society, who have asked Google to stop providing street-level, photographic views of Japanese cities, saying they “deeply violate[] a basic right that humans have.”

The article makes no mention of Google’s efforts to address right of privacy concerns by blurring faces and removing offensive or sensitive images.  Assuming Google has implemented these measures in Japan, it’s hard to understand this group’s specific concerns.  Certainly, a “surveillance society” is offensive to many people, including myself, but here the images are static (i.e., not a live video stream) and protective measures have been implemented to help safeguard privacy.  These protective measures are, of course, not perfect; the blurring technology may miss some faces and offensive content is only removed when found and tagged.  However, whatever actual or theoretical harm exists, in my opinion, is outweighed by the public benefit from the Street View service.

–Matt

(Thanks, Sara)