Captured on Camera
Today the OPC issued Captured on Camera, a fact sheet intended to help Canadians understand the privacy issues surrounding street-level imaging applications like Google StreetView and a similar product offered by Canpages.(html), (pdf)
The basic message?
“Under Canadian privacy law you should know when your picture is being taken for commercial reasons, and what your image will be used for. Your consent is also needed. There are exceptions, but they are very limited and specific.” …
“We think companies that engage in this activity have to let citizens know that they are going to be photographing the streets of their city, when this will happen, why and how they can have their image removed if they don’t want it in a database.”
There’s more, but you should go read it yourself.
“Captured on Camera” is a joint product of the OPC and the Privacy Commissioners of Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia.
4 Responses
2:53 pm
We received a visit from the Street View camera-car today: http://ow.ly/5P5i
My first reaction was to clean up the front yard (!) but I’ll also be sure to check out the images to see if there is anything objectionable.
10:55 pm
I’m not thrilled about this.
I was following what happened to Mr. Jon Newton here on his blog here http://www.p2pnet.net/story/23336 and here http://www.p2pnet.net/story/23469.
I don’t even know where Google is advertising where and when they are filming. It’s not in my local paper.
I seriously don’t want the following filmed by this commercial foreign entity:
-My kids who play in the front yard with the twins next door
-My home and address
-The hardware attached to my home (AC, central, Satellite dish (if any), The Bell phone line I detached from my home.
-My cars and my cars license plates
-The condition of my grass
-The condition of any cracked window on my home
-What Plants I keep in my garden
-What type of tree I planted
-My choice of watering the lawn when I’m not allowed to (if they capture this)
-My choice to keep all the above (especially the kids and license plate) off a foreign companies foreign data base which the Privacy Commissioner has no powers to audit or do anything about in a foreign country.
-The profiling of everything to do with my house and property.
-I don’t agree with the privacy commissioner that Blurring is good enough when an unblurred master sits on foreign soil when my Privacy Commissioner has no powers to have them removed on my request.
I can go on, trust me.
I don’t like it at all, and I DEMAND the choice to opt-in (which I would not opt-in), yet google is opting all of us in by default.
I do not accept this.
Since I can’t find where google states the area’s they have done already and/or plan to do, I want to opt-out (though I think I should have to opt-in for the foreign commercial entity).
If they pass on my street I want to see something physical (ie. a white hood over the camera) proving they are not taking the film/picture of my privacy and what they can profile.
If I find out they have indeed already passed on my street, the above will be formally submitted (and I will ask my neighbors for their input as well).
I take issue with it all.
The privacy Commissioner should require Google to have an opt-in, in my belief, and not some obscure website that no one is aware of and that I can’t find.
In the URLS posted above, Google said, “its not commercial, its free”.
Again, I take extreme exception to this by this foreign commercial company who is profile people homes and neighborhoods.
Profiling my home and whom they capture outside is equal to profiling me and my choices.
I respectfully request that the Privacy Commissioner of Canada put an immediate halt to this. Require Google to notify people, and provide them with an OPT-IN as opposed to an assumed opt-in.
An assumed opt-in is to late. Its out of Canada and on foreign soil.
With respect and regards,
M.N.
8:59 pm
[...] about the arrival of Google street view as I am. There are also privacy concerns at issue as the blog from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner [...]
12:09 pm
can photos of my property be taken over my fence without consent?
Leave a Reply