Google set for some interesting challenges

Google's Street View product looks set to ruffle privacy feathers and perhaps gain some valuable insight into legal interpretation of the UK's privacy laws.

Simon Davis of Privacy international is reported on the BBC website as saying

"In our view they need a person's consent if they make use of a person's face for commercial ends,"

I'm not sure that 'for commercial ends' is the crux of the issue, but rather whether Google can rely on any specific exemption from the Subject Information Provisions. After all, newspapers use images of people in the street for 'commercial means', it's just that they can (often) apply an exemption from subject information provisions on the basis of journalism (DPA 98 S 32).

So what is Street View, is it Art, Journalism or Literature? Mmm, none of the above me thinks, although having a special purpose linked to a concept as vague as 'Art' is bound to encourage strenous debate. Have a read of Tolstoy 'What is Art' and see if you can claim that Street View creates a specific emotional link between artist and audience, one that "infects" the viewer.

Like Privacy International, I think Google are on some thin ice here,