Google Street View

[The Local 492]

Internet search engine Google plans to launch its controversial Street View feature in Germany soon, but users with objections can register complaints before images of their street are made public, news magazine Focus reported on Monday.

 

The Google Maps addition provides panorama images visible from street level in cities around the world and will be available in Germany "promptly," the company told the magazine from Hamburg. The service is meant to allow people to see and explore a city in detail without actually physically visiting.

 

Data protection activists have been critical of the feature, saying that the cameras used to collect the images would also record details of residents' lives. Google's special Street View data collection cars, with mounted roof-top cameras, caused an uproar last summer as they trolled the streets of Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt, taking pictures for the service.

 

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[dbxpurdue 4]

Saw one of the google cars once while driving to the gym in Sunnyvale,CA a few months ago. Funny setup on the roof!!!

[nurse_blueyes 3]

I do not agree with Google being able to photograph any area they choose and then allows anyone-and remember in these times it can be ANYONE- can download and view whatever they want. I have seen where even children playing in a yard can be viewed. This to me is an invasion of privacy. I support those cities in Germany who have made it clear they wish to be left out of the process. If Google can show a safer, less invasive way to make their map, let's see it.

[crispybee 10]

Well looking at your profile NurseBlueyes you dont seem to tell us much about yourself so presumably that why you say what you do.

 

But if the Google cars are simply driving along public roads and taking photos, then putting them on the web, with details of where that photo was taken, well I guess I could do that. The only difference between me and google is that they have done it better than I could

[LMB222 45]

Privacy? In Germany that doesn't exist. I'm regularly being asked for my birthday by such unrelated institutions as my son's school. I teach in university, and I regularly receive list of students' names, emails, but also dates and places of birth.

Hence I consider the calls for "privacy" hypocrisy.

[thefirelane 980]

 

I have seen where even children playing in a yard can be viewed.

Dear God! Now people will know children have a predilection for yards and playgrounds! Before Google street view, perverts were at a complete loss as to where to find children. Now no one is safe!

[straderm 8]

Agreed LMB. Germans don't seem too concerned on the privacy front to begin with. Its difficult get a job interview without a photo, age and marital details included (details which are irrelevant to how you might perform in a given function), and every time you move you have to register with police department so the government can keep an eye on you. Germans aren't in an uproar about this and other examples of basic disregard for privacy, so I don't see why anyone would reasonably object to Street View (although I'm sure people will, regardless).

 

Oh, I see kids playing in yards all the time, nurse blueeyes. I don't feel I'm violating anyone's privacy by looking. I suppose, online, in the privacy of my own home, I could stop and stare at various street view images unobserved (not really my thing though), but since Germans don't seem to find staring rude anyway (search 'staring germans' on the forums), there's no argument to be had on that front either.

 

If you're really doing something private at home, do it inside and close your ugly metal eyesores of blinds. Otherwise, Google is simply removing the illusion of privacy that you seem to have.

[Janx Spirit 10,383]

Another thread Google Maps gets "Street View"

[gatzke 17]

We saw the google car in Bruges just after Easter. Maybe we will make it into Street view when it launches in Belgium?

 

Some old funny streetview images from the US here.

[GerryM 154]

 

Agreed LMB. Germans don't seem too concerned on the privacy front to begin with. Its difficult get a job interview without a photo, age and marital details included (details which are irrelevant to how you might perform in a given function),

I've been told that the photo is to prevent candidates getting somone more qualified to turn up in your place, especially if there's some kind of testing involved. The age would certainly be relevant as a confirmation of previous experience and consistency with your employment history. And if you get the job, you'll be giving your marital details to the payroll people anyway.

I don't think asking for those 3 details is particular to Germany. Apart from the photo, which seem to be a recent thing, I'd say they're pretty much standard requirements for most job applictions anywhere.

 

The Google car was spotted in Trier a couple of weeks ago, and Luxembourg a little while before that, so this area will be on there soon.

[_parky_ 144]

anybody wanna join me following the car around? we can standing by the street with our arses' out until it goes past and quickly jump on the u-bahn to be waiting at the next stop, ladies more than welcome too ;)

[kilsam 2]

 

I've been told that the photo is to prevent candidates getting somone more qualified to turn up in your place, especially if there's some kind of testing involved.

Hi, Actually I believe the picture has a little bit of a sinister use. It is to prevent non-german from getting jobs. It's a very simple way of seeing where you come from and to discriminate.

I am sure that everybody here has gone to German bureaucratic offices (burgeramt, finazanamt, auslanderamt...). How many of you have noticed people of Turkisch descent in those jobs?

I know that attaching a photo on a resume has been in place for a long time in France and that's the way they've been keeping immigrants and their offsprings from jobs.

 

I know it's my take on it but it certainly seem to hold true.

[Clapoti 65]

 

I've been told that the photo is to prevent candidates getting somone more qualified to turn up in your place, especially if there's some kind of testing involved.

That's a pretty stupid "reason"... what if they hired you because the guy doing the interview in your place is good... then you show up at the job and big surprise it's not the guy who was at the interview. It's not the subject of this thread, but anyway the person who told you that was bullshitting you and himself too if he believes in it.

[GerryM 154]

isn´t that exactly what I said?

[Steven192 272]

 

Hi, Actually I believe the picture has a little bit of a sinister use. It is to prevent non-german from getting jobs. It's a very simple way of seeing where you come from and to discriminate.

I am sure that everybody here has gone to German bureaucratic offices (burgeramt, finazanamt, auslanderamt...). How many of you have noticed people of Turkisch descent in those jobs?

I know that attaching a photo on a resume has been in place for a long time in France and that's the way they've been keeping immigrants and their offsprings from jobs.

 

I know it's my take on it but it certainly seem to hold true.

If that was even slightly true then why bother with the photo? The details on the CV would give the vast majority of people away with out one - Easy enough to reject anyone with a "Turkisch (sic)" name and if you miss one then on the initial interview "sorry but you are not what we are looking for, goodbye".

 

I think they ask for a photo just to make sure you aren't a hippocrocapig and won't scare the customers and other workers.

[straderm 8]

Sorry, photos, ages and marital status contribute nothing valid to a resume (i.e. they do not indicate your expected performance in a job), and all can (and commonly do) affect one's perceptions of individuals. So, in nations like the UK and US, it is recognized that this perception-shaping information has no place on a resume, and requests along these lines by a potential employer is considered an offensive violation of privacy. This mentality of, "Well, why wouldn't you provide this information?" is exactly the type of insensitivity to privacy concerns exhibited by a sizable chuck of Germans. Insistence on any of these pieces of info from a US job candidate is grounds for a (well-deserved) discrimination lawsuit.

 

@Steven192. Its probably tongue in cheek when you say "...a photo just to make sure you aren't a hippocrocapig...", but this is precisely the type of discrimination you can (and shouldn't) conduct when you have a photo of someone. Unless attractiveness very clearly relates to your job function (as in, you're a model), it is discrimination.

 

@GerryM. Age doesn't confirm or deny any claims in your employment history. People can graduate most any institution at 20 or 40 equally well. An accessible and legit paper trail goes alot further in that regard than a birthdate. And your point about marital status... of course you'll file it away with h.r. AFTER you have the job. The point is, it shouldn't be available when the hiring decision is made. Believe it or not, there is a pattern of young, recently married women getting turned down from job interviews on the assumption that they'll want to start families and take maternity leave soon.

 

If two candidates with comparable resumes apply for a job, but one happens to be young, hot and single, who do you think is more likely to get an interview?

[Steven192 272]

Yeah I know why the US (UK as well?) Don't do photos on the CV but it is pretty pointless when you think about it.

 

If company A is filled with rasisct/migsogynist/nazis do you really think that they won't a) throw all CVs with the wrong sounding name in the bin and/or b ) take one look at you as you enter the interview room and then go No thanks .

 

All not sending a photo does is incur costs, either to the company if they pay your expenses or to you if you have to travel to the interview.

 

If the company is not filled with rasicst etc as above then the photo will make zero differnce as to whether you get the first interview or not.

 

So what exactly is the point of not sending a photo?

[straderm 8]

 

All not sending a photo does is incur costs...

Exactly the point of not including a photo. If someone is really determined to be a racist or misogynist prick when hiring, you're right in that you won't be able to stop them.

 

However, not including a photo increases the cost of discrimination for the employer. Looking for the desired profile via interviews will be much more time consuming than at the resume stage. It won't stop die hard bigots, but it serves as a deterrent for others.

 

Also, its a little harder than you let on to filter out race by the sound of a name. Without serious thought, I can think of a half dozen people I know with typical American caucasian names that aren't white. Names get mixed up pretty quickly after a generation of intermarriage with the locals.

[fRe4k 158]

Check this link, which has some interesting pics : Google Maps: An Invasion Of Privacy?

[hzoi 14]

If I walk down your street and take pictures, and you happen to be in one because you're outside, I have not invaded your privacy.

 

If I am with a group of friends, and we all have cameras and take pictures, and you happen to be in several because you're outside, we have not invaded your privacy.

 

Just because Google is a commercial enterprise and has a more efficient way of doing it, does not mean that they are suddenly invading your privacy.