I saw my first Google Street View car cruising around Regina today, and the first thought that went through my head was that of looking forward to seeing all the confused looks of my fellow citizens as the car drives by with a giant high definition 360 camera strapped to the top. I entertained this thought all afternoon until I got home and did a little research, only to find out that Google Canada decided to blur all the faces in the images.

A little more reading and I was surprised to find out that there’s an alarming amount of criticism coming up on both sides of the subject… Okay who am I kidding, this is the internet, I wasn’t really surprised.

Google Street View Car
Image by Johannesen via Flickr

Many people seem to feel that Street View is invading their privacy and there seems to be concerns about people being photographed without their knowledge entering sensitive locations such as abortion clinics and rehab centers. On the other side of the fence we have people pointing out that it’s perfectly legal to take pictures of public places and the people in those public places. As one person so eloquently stated, “If you don’t want to be photographed while in public, put a bag over your head.”

Now while I don’t necessarily disagree with either side, it’s interesting to note some of the other problems people seem to have with Street View, most notably Les MacPherson (Saskatoon Star Phoenix) objecting to the time of year that the photographs were taken, stating that taking photographs of the city during the spring months when the ice is still melting, with brown parks and grey skies would ruin their tourism appeal.