The Information Commissioner’s Office has this weekend confirmed that Google Street View does not violate any privacy laws in the UK and is perfectly legal. When you consider the same ruling was applied to the Phorm targeted advertising system, which monitors website usage and websites visited, what exactly does the Information Commissioner’s Office do?
There are concerns that many websites and many Internet services are using potential loopholes in privacy laws in the UK to harvest information which traditionally would have been seen as private. We have already seen situations whereby criminals have used Google Street View to find targets and plan escape routes and the Phorm saga continues with pro-Phorm and anti-Phorm parties further apart than ever before.
It does beg the question as to what information about yourself, your home and your Internet use is private and what is actually within the public domain. Even though these two systems have grabbed the headlines over the last few weeks there are many more similar systems out there which are operating using loopholes in the law.
How ironic that a Google Street View car driver was seen arguing with photographers who took their photograph while they were recording street data.