Patent Law

Google's Street View a problem in Germany?

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

Google's roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it's got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users' unique Mac (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along.

Germany's Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar says he's "horrified" by the discovery.

(...)

But Google's uniquely cavalier approach to privacy, and its potential ability to cross reference the information raises additional concerns. Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said internet users shouldn't worry about privacy unless they have something to hide. And when there's nowhere left to hide...?

Street View used by crooks?--

A UK-based milkman and former football manager has questioned whether Google Street View played a role in a series of attempted burglaries on his home - one successful - after Google's virtual window onto the world's very real streets exposed a photo of his wide open garage.

Gordon Rayner, 54, suspects that burglars may have used Street View to target the contents of his garage, which are clearly visible in the photo snapped by one of Google's roving camera cars as it rode through the streets of Bradford. "People need to be aware of this: it's a serious invasion of privacy," Rayner tells The Reg. "It's basically shopping online for these crooks."

On 25 April, CBS Sunday morning did a piece on the "Google doodle."
Dennis Wong was the original Google doodler, and he noted the first rule in business (trademarks) is to leave the logo alone.
Two very different doodles were in barcode and in braille. A Halloween doodle had four different images, advanced by clicking.

Full post as published by IPBiz on April 25, 2010 (boomark / email).