Google sued for $7,000 over woman’s underwear Street View reveal

Dec 17
2010

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Google’s Street View may be the ultimate in visual navigation, but it certainly has been under much scrutiny over this past year. For example, back in May Google were sued for collecting private Wi-Fi data and now they are being held to account once again, this time for an offense of a more personal nature.

A Japanese woman is so upset over seeing private items on her washing line appearing on Google Street View that she is now suing the company for 600,000 Yen (just over $7,000). After all, it’s not every day that you have a gander at one of the world’s most popular “Public” services to find that your undergarments are on show, so we can imagine the look on her face when she first laid her eyes on them.

A quote taken from the district court proceeding in Japan revealed the women’s innermost thoughts about the matter:

I was overwhelmed with anxiety that I might be the target of a sex crime. It caused me to lose my job, and I had to change my residence. I could understand if it was just a picture of the outside of the apartment, but showing a person’s underwear hanging outside is absolutely wrong.

It does seem like a massive overreaction, but it appears that the women suffers from an obsessive-compulsive disorder. When she found the garments on Google Street View she thought that Google was actually following her!

Computers-Plus