Man wins $12,500 from Google after being captured naked on Street View
Google has been forced to pay an Argentinian man a fee of $12,500 after he was caught naked on their Street View cameras.
The footage was captured in 2017, and the man was behind a six-foot wall when the camera shot an image of him in his birthday suit. It was later broadcast on Argentinian television, and private details, such as his address, also became public knowledge.
He claimed that, as a result of the unwanted virality, he was mocked by work colleagues and neighbours. Additionally, last year, he lost a court ruling after he was deemed to be at fault for walking around his garden naked.
However, appeals judges have now sided with him and awarded $12,500, stating, “This involves an image of a person that was not captured in a public space but within the confines of their home, behind a fence taller than the average-sized person. The invasion of privacy … is blatant”.
They also said there was “no justification for (Google) to evade responsibility for this serious error that involved an intrusion into the plaintiff’s house, within his private domain, undermining his dignity. No one wants to appear exposed to the world as the day they were born.”
The judges then noted that Google blurs faces and license plates on Street View as a protection measure, before adding, “It was not his face that was visible but his entire naked body, an image that should also have been prevented.”
This lawsuit isn’t the first time that Street View has landed Google in a courtroom. In 2019, it reportedly had to pay out an eye-watering $13 million regarding the private information it had gathered on Street View, a figure that would make most other businesses go bankrupt, but is merely a drop in the ocean for the tech giant.