More sensational news from Japan about the dangers of Google Street View
A NTV news report paints a pretty negative picture of Google Street View:
The beginning of the report shows us a real estate company that uses Google Street View in its offices to give potential renters information about the area around certain houses and apartment buildings. It is also very useful for giving directions and showing people just how close certain buildings are to train stations.
The report then begins to present negative views about Street View. A group of housewives complain about how they feel their privacy is being invaded by the images Google is putting on the web. They are shocked to discover that images of their houses are available to the public, and in some views one can even see laundry hanging out to dry! There have also apparently been official complaints about Street View, and some politicians have been discussing the matter.
For the next example of privacy being invaded, NTV takes their sensationalism up a notch. Their reporters have searched the internet and discovered Google’s My Map service, which allows users create personalized, annotated, customized maps using Google Maps. They search public My Maps and find one that contains the full names and addresses of several people. A camera crew is sent to one the addresses and informs the person living there about the map.
The residents of that address are stunned to find their personal information on a public website. Based on the other addresses in the same My Map, they realize that a coworker must have made it. He is summoned to the apartment, and is also shocked to find that the map is public. For some reason, he had believed that the map was not public and did realize it would be saved for months after he created it.
Why was the man’s My Map viewable to the general public? Because, like many other users of Google’s My Map service, he clicked “OK” without actually checking the settings of the map he was creating. A “make this map private” option is readily available, and users who do not select that option will make their maps public.*
The report ends with a security expert telling viewers to be very careful when entering any private information about themselves or others on the internet.
* This problem is almost identical to another issue that caused a privacy panic about Amazon.co.jp wish lists.
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