So the story is simple: A fisherman grieves for a lost buddy, gets rip-roaring drunk and then passes out on a grass strip near his house.
Normally, he would wake up – maybe sheepish that his neighbors and passersby saw him dead to the world – and then get cleaned up and go about his day.
But it just happens that the day this bloke was passed out in public, a camera drove by to record scenes for Google Street View.
And it becomes another debating point over whether there’s such thing as privacy in an online, camera-saturated world. My question: If you’re within public view, where others can see you, can privacy be assumed anyway?
This isn’t the first time that privacy questions have come up regarding services such as Google Earth and Street View or Microsoft’s Virtual Earth. For example, both services have inadvertently caught submarine secrets on their cameras. In the case of Virtual Earth, the submarine secret revealed was close to home here, just across Puget Sound.
There’s even a Web site cataloging some of the more embarassing scenes caught by Google Street View. And one guy, with too much time on his hands, has proposed TWICE to his girlfriend using Street View’s cameras.
In a form of digital revenge, you can even scope a view of Larry Page’s house. He’s a co-founder of Google.
In the same vein, the Port of Tacoma is trying to figure out who posted video of an accident on its property on to YouTube. Is the video of an accident that happened on publicly owned property considered public record? What are the security risks of posting videos from the security-conscious portsides?
If you’re interested, here’s the Port of Tacoma video:
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
