Google's Street View has hit another pothole. The Japanese Campaign Against Surveillance Society (Kanshi Shakai o Kyohisuru Kai) is calling for Google to stop providing Internet users with its panoramic view of Japan's streets. The Japanese group of professors and lawyers led by Sophia University constitutional law professor Yasuhiko Tajima, also wants Google to delete the images they already have. Google's Street View peers into the roads and byways in several Japanese cities, including: Tsutenkaku Tower, Kobe, Sendai , Hakodate, and Sapporo. 

Google sees Street View as a valuable Internet benefit and here's what Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel, had to say on Lat Long Blog: "Street View is a service that lets people view and navigate within 360 degree street level imagery of various cities in the US. It provides users with a rich, immersive browsing experience directly in Google Maps, enabling greater understanding of a specific location or area."

However, the entire world doesn't share his enthusiasm. This isn't the first time Google's virtual tours have raised the hackles of countries outside the United States where it launched its service. The right of their citizens to privacy, the security of their country, commercial exploitation of their populace are all issues in various parts of the world. Google Maps with Street View operates not only in Japan, but also in Australia, New Zealand, Western Europe, and heavily in the United States. 

Considering Street View's possible entry into Canada, that country's Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, voiced concern in late 2007 that Street View might violate Canadian privacy laws. The US feared national security problems, so the Pentagon asked that Google remove some images that could pose a threat to their military bases. 

As reported in PCWorld in May 2008, EU data protection supervisor, Peter Hustinx, said "We have sent a very strong message to Google and other Internet search companies in our report on search engines about complying with European privacy laws." 

Privacy wasn't as much the issue in the UK, as the unpaid, non-consensual, commercial use of people caught on Google's cameras. Simon Davis of Privacy International commented to BBC News, "In our view they need a person's consent if they make use of a person's face for commercial ends."

Google's website explains that Street View cars using special cameras take photos while driving down public streets. Faces and license plates are intentionally blurred. Collection, processing and posting the street images takes several months to complete, and is not real time. So does the delay negate the privacy question? Apparently not according to several complaints.

Privacy International (PI) is a human rights group established in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations. Based in London, PI also has an office in Washington, and members in 40 countries. 

The member countries hold country-specific Big Brother Awards (the name being based on the famous George Orwell novel about a totalitarianism civilization where everyone is under 24 hour surveillance, and manipulated through thought control designed to ensure that the system continues. 

Lifetime Menace Award
Google is the, shall we say not-so-proud, recipient of several nods. May 2007 in Canada Google was nominated for their retention practices and their purchase of Doubleclick, an on-line marketing and profiling firm. In March 2008, the French event awarded its Lifetime Menace - Prix Spécial du Jury to Google Inc. for its "overwhelming capacity to retain personal data of internet users, for having been rated the 'worst company' among worldwide Internet groups surveyed last year by Privacy International, for not complying to the EU Data Protection directives, and for filtering search results for political reasons."

Google founders Larry Page and Steve Brin, as well as Global Privacy Officer Peter Fleischer, were named for their personal contribution.

The French Ministry of Culture and Communication was also cited for its "repeated laws and decrees aiming to filter the internet, organise global monitoring of internet users without court warrants, and being complacent to the music and film industry lobbies in their fight against online piracy." 

The Japanese organization also had harsh words, but so far, no Big Brother awards. "We strongly suspect that what Google has been doing deeply violates a basic right that humans have," Tajima told Reuters. "It is necessary to warn society that an IT giant is openly violating privacy rights, which are important rights that the citizens have, through this service."

The Big Brother Award committee apparently did not believe Google's Peter Fleischer when he wrote, "There's an important public policy debate in every country around what privacy means in public spaces. That balance will vary from country to country, and Street View will respect it."

Respecting it, and understanding it are not necessarily the same thing. Cultural differences can be subtle. 

Charles Ess of Drury University in the US, contributed these thoughts in Information Technology and Social Justice, published by Idea Group, Inc. He writes that there are radical differences between Western expectations of privacy, and those of Japan. In the US, individual privacy is a good thing that needs protection. In Japan, however, the opposite is true; privacy does not have such a good reputation. He feels the influence of Buddhism and the emphasis on "no self" (musi) negates the concept of privacy, especially if one hopes to attain Buddhist enlightenment which requires extinguishing the ego completely.

His opinion is that information ethics is a comparatively recent development in Japan. However it seems to be gaining ground if you follow Professor Tajima's complaint. 

Street Views look different around the world, and Google must navigate not only the streets in various countries, but the beliefs as well. X