Privacy In A Public Space

Imagine, if you will …

It is a dark, blustery day downtown and you’re rushing through the mist trying to stay as dry as possible. The chilly air frosts your ragged breath with each puff as you race to your destination down the block. You pause a moment to catch your breathe beside a pink and purple neon sign – the only real source of light you can see. Maybe it really is time to invest in a watch with a back light.

Your eyes are drawn to the end of the street, where a set of dim lights suddenly rounds the corner. A nondescript van stares back at you sullenly, waiting for you to move, or speak, or breathe. What is it waiting for? Now the van starts to inch its way down the road. A series of clicks and whirs echo down the street as it moves languidly towards you.

You instinctively pull back a bit towards the neon and take a closer look at the unremarkable van – well, almost unremarkable. Now that you’re looking closely at it you notice that the roof of the van seems to bulge upwards a little bit. There seems to be some kind of turret or attachment on top of the van. Slivers of pink and purple neon wink on and off of a reflective surface of some kind on top of the van – is it glass or metallic? The van slows down on the road beside you and seems to pause. You freeze, daring only to breathe shallowly – for some reason you’re feeling like prey and it isn’t a good feeling. Something shifts and winks from the turret on top of the van – a click, a whir, and the van inches off further down the road.

“What just happened?” you wonder as you sneak off into the mist behind the van. Who was that and what did they want?

You get home and take a quick glance over your new emails – one strikes you as peculiar so you read it. It’s from your friend, warning you about an organization that is sending vans out into the street to photograph the people, places, and buildings. Images of “Big Brother” immediately come to mind, and then you remember that van. That whirring and clicking – it must have been taking pictures of you – but for what reason? Who is behind these vans and why do they want pictures of your neighbourhood? With a chill you realize that the pink and purple neon lights you so cleverly hid in front of were from the strip joint around the corner – and now someone has a picture of you looking suspicious outside a strip joint. Aren’t there laws against this kind of thing – invasion of your privacy or something like that? Who knows where that picture will show up now ….

Actually, the picture will now show up on Google searches. Google has introduced a new feature to their mapping software – Google Street View. A van coasts along and takes pictures of the area to allow reconstruction of a 3-D view of the area for people who choose to view it when using Google’s mapping service.

Nothing sinister (though some may try to convince you otherwise) – but what happens when this van captures the private lives of people’s homes? How about illegal activity or pseudo pornography? What expectations can one honestly have when walking in public? Is there a difference between an expectation of privacy and an expectation that your picture won’t be distributed across the world without your permission, no matter where you are?

The feature is bringing up all sorts of interesting discussions around privacy in public spaces.