Culture

Culture

by Mike Masnick




A9's Photos Violating People's Privacy?

from the privacy?--what's-that? dept

While it looks like plenty of people are starting to have some fun with A9's new photo yellow pages feature, apparently not everyone thinks it's all that cool. A group of privacy advocates (including some of the same folks who objected to Gmail when it first launched) are apparently concerned that the site includes certain photos, including "abused women's shelters, abortion clinics and adult video stores." While the USA Today article suggests the problem is that the service makes them findable, that seems unlikely (if the place has an address, it was already quite findable -- and most of these places have no problem with being found). What could be a bigger concern is if the photos happen to clearly capture someone heading into one of these places who would prefer to keep that info private. On top of that, the article points to a variety mistakes, that suggest certain photos are of places they aren't. For the most part, it seems like the concerns are a bit misplaced -- but A9 may want to have a simple procedure to get a photo yanked -- especially since people are digging up amusing photos of people caught entirely unaware.

1 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1. Jan 31st, 2005 @ 5:35am

    Assumption of Privacy

    by Mongo

    Courts have ruled time and again that you have no assumption of privacy while walking down a public street. It's a silly claim.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie
  • Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break <br> tag, all other allowable HTML is intact
  • HTML: No formatting of any kind is done without explicitly being written in
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <p> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Close
Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie

Search Techdirt
And now, a word from our Sponsors..



Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Related Stories
Close
E-mail It