This never made sense to me. Prior to Street View, at least two German companies did the same thing (photographing every street with essentially the same technology,and putting it online). Noone complained. Now that Google is doing it, it's suddenly a huge privacy nightmare. I just don't understand.
Most of it is just misinformation.
People think the images are realtime. They think you can move the camera to go to places and e.g. look into windows to see what your neighbour is doing right now.
The other part is irrational fear.
Fear that thieves will use 2 year old images to check out a house, fear that some potential employer won't hire them because you apartment complex looks shitty (Some Germans really like their house fronts - contrast that to the France that most don't care at all what it looks like from the outside, as ling as it's attractive from the inside).
I think it is more to do with the reputation that Google is gaining and also the fact that they already have a /tremendous/ amounts of information about their users and it is another part of that information collection drive which can and will be connected to the rest and thus making it much more comprehensive.
While talking about this with other people (also in Germany), I also learned that the government does regular flyovers (at least in some cities) and also sells the images they create. Much better insights than just glimpses from the streets.
I'm always amazed to see this come up again. (I do live there) The irrationality culminates when people are interviewed by local newspapers, which then put them in front of the or home in a huge image right above the article where they complain about the privacy issues they have with Google photographing their home.
On a final note there is a short enjoyable parody od the situation from the leader of the political party THE PARTEI, about Google "Home View" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYMGkQTpODY) language is German, though I assume one can follow easily without knowing any German. I haven't found a transcript nor English version. :(
"Nazis' Gestapo and the East German Stasi secret police"
Ooops - it seems many people might not realize that Street View images are not live. There was also another statement in a newspaper here (Germany) where some police officers were considering if they could do virtual patrols. Misinformation leads to fear...
I think in the long run, the opposite thing will be much more important: people will fight to be IN street view. If you are a shop owner, not being on street view will be a significant disadvantage.
Not only will outdated pictures be a problem, but also the people living above your shop who opted out of Street View.
To put things into perspective: Google has a 97% market share for search here in Germany, IIRC. Don't know the other numbers, but they are probably quite high for online video, too.
Also, I'd say, people here don't have the blind faith, U.S. people seem to have concerning cooperations and free markets.
Under these circumstances, it shouldn't be a surprise that Germans are reluctant to watch some large cooperation build another potential monopoly out of other people's "property" -- namely their privacy.
I'm currently in Germany. When I left the US everybody was talking about Google's net neutrality issues. In Germany those things were barely even mentioned.
I think this alleged "street view scandal" covered up the whole net neutrality scandal (which IMHO is much more important).
Premium-grade FUD, really interesting to observe (I live in Germany). What I find interesting is that while no direct legislative action is being taken by politicians on this front, they generate so much noise in the media that people are opting out all by themselves. Sneaky because you can't even actively arbitrage against this.
[+] [-] Kliment|15 years ago|reply
This never made sense to me. Prior to Street View, at least two German companies did the same thing (photographing every street with essentially the same technology,and putting it online). Noone complained. Now that Google is doing it, it's suddenly a huge privacy nightmare. I just don't understand.
[+] [-] Sujan|15 years ago|reply
The other part is irrational fear. Fear that thieves will use 2 year old images to check out a house, fear that some potential employer won't hire them because you apartment complex looks shitty (Some Germans really like their house fronts - contrast that to the France that most don't care at all what it looks like from the outside, as ling as it's attractive from the inside).
So yes, it's a German thing.
[+] [-] aj|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bartman|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tichy|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aw3c2|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] twoct|15 years ago|reply
On a final note there is a short enjoyable parody od the situation from the leader of the political party THE PARTEI, about Google "Home View" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYMGkQTpODY) language is German, though I assume one can follow easily without knowing any German. I haven't found a transcript nor English version. :(
[+] [-] hellrich|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tichy|15 years ago|reply
Ooops - it seems many people might not realize that Street View images are not live. There was also another statement in a newspaper here (Germany) where some police officers were considering if they could do virtual patrols. Misinformation leads to fear...
I think in the long run, the opposite thing will be much more important: people will fight to be IN street view. If you are a shop owner, not being on street view will be a significant disadvantage.
Not only will outdated pictures be a problem, but also the people living above your shop who opted out of Street View.
[+] [-] cschwarm|15 years ago|reply
Also, I'd say, people here don't have the blind faith, U.S. people seem to have concerning cooperations and free markets.
Under these circumstances, it shouldn't be a surprise that Germans are reluctant to watch some large cooperation build another potential monopoly out of other people's "property" -- namely their privacy.
[+] [-] ugh|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jhuckestein|15 years ago|reply
I think this alleged "street view scandal" covered up the whole net neutrality scandal (which IMHO is much more important).
[+] [-] c1sc0|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yellowbkpk|15 years ago|reply
http://www.edparsons.com/2010/09/germany-doomed-never-to-inn...
[+] [-] senki|15 years ago|reply