A Google Street View car equipped to take pictures.
In a world where technology is improving at a rapid pace, ethics are often left behind. This was the case with Google’s Street View. The internet giant is in court over its illegal usage of emails, documents, phone calls, and other personal information from home computers.
Google has argued that all their information was easily accessible off Wi-Fi networks and does not violate any laws, but this has been rejected by the Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit.
Kathryn Barnett, who works for Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Berstein, a firm working for the 22 plaintiffs said, “Although technology continually advances, the right to privacy in our homes endures.”
When so much of our lives are shared on the internet, privacy is very important. Just because you can access someone’s information, doesn’t mean you should. Everyone has secrets and sometimes they should stay hidden. This is especially disappointing since the people that are being violated are Googles’ own users. People want their privacy respected, and it shouldn’t be such a struggle to comply.
With the lawsuit moving forward, hopefully more effective policies to help maintain the secure privacy of the public will be introduced.
Even though times have changed and technology has advanced, I believe individuals still have their respected privacy. And just like Kathryn Barnett has mentioned, people still do have privacy in their own homes. Sometimes though it may be difficult for celebrities or renown individuals to avoid invasion of privacy- such as their birthday, where they live and so on, since people constantly want to know more about them. However, it really is going overboard if google can get personal information from home computers.