One day last fall, Minsuk Kim '08 put on a teal sweater, gray pants and black shoes. He and a friend then walked east on Williams Street, around the corner from Kim's apartment.
Kim doesn't recall this particular incident. But Google does.
On Dec. 11, the search engine giant introduced a service called "Street View" to Providence. The feature, integrated with the popular Google Maps, allows Internet users to get a panoramic view of most Providence street addresses.
Google says that Street View is a practical tool allowing users to, say, see if parking is available around an address or to find the name of a business they passed by. But critics complain the product is invasive and smacks of "Big Brother," since Street View takes such clear photos - many of which include distinguishable shots of unsuspecting passersby.
Like Kim, who didn't notice anyone or anything photographing him. He didn't even know his likeness was on Street View until a friend sent him a text message over winter break, telling him to check out Williams Street.
So Kim went online. There he was, walking toward either his friend's house or a liquor store, he says. He laughed when he saw the image, which was clear enough for any acquaintance to recognize him.
"I just think it's funny," Kim says. "I also wasn't doing anything incriminating, but I could see how it could be a problem."
"Don't Be Evil"
When Google first introduced Street View last May, the Mountain View, Calif., company imagined it as a way to further "understand the world through images."
"With Street View, you can virtually explore city neighborhoods by viewing and navigating within 360-degree scenes of street-level imagery," wrote Stephen Chau, Street View's product manager, in a Google blog entry introducing the tool. "It feels as if you're walking down the street!"
With Street View, which debuted in five cities and is now in 23, Google introduced a technology that seemed unfathomable just a few years ago. Though Amazon.com and other companies have attempted similar projects, Street View is by far the most advanced, since it seamlessly stitches images together to create a virtual street.
Google uses regular cars, equipped with "imaging technology," to collect images and location data as they drive down public streets, wrote Elaine Filadelfo, a Google spokeswoman, in an e-mail. Filadelfo added that the vehicles have the "Google Maps" logo on them.
Street View is simple to use. Users enter a street address in Google Maps and, if the feature is enabled for that particular location, click "Street View." They will then see a panoramic shot of that location and can virtually move up or down a street using the arrow buttons.
Filadelfo wrote that Street View images are usually a couple of months to a year old when they are uploaded. Google plans to update its Street View images in the future, she added, and is currently working on adding high-definition photos in a "wide variety of cities."
Those high-definition photos may not sit well with critics who say Street View already intrudes too much on individual rights. Though the product breaks no laws for the most part - after all, the images are shot from public property - it raises serious ethical questions, says Rebecca Jeschke, spokeswoman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group.
"Something like Google Street View really is the first step in a feeling that we're being recorded in everything we do," Jeschke says. "Generally, we can expect a certain amount of anonymity (in public places). This shows a real change to that, and that's disturbing."
Street View can be potentially embarrassing. When the feature debuted last year, bloggers posted some of their favorite images: of sunbathers, of people entering or leaving strip clubs and even one of a man who appears to be breaking into a house.
"You shouldn't have to think about whether or not you're on camera when you're going to the doctor or perhaps going to drug treatment," Jeschke says. She adds that a journalist found a Street View image of Kevin Bankston, one of Jeschke's co-workers, smoking, "a habit that he's not proud of."
Bankston, a lawyer for the EFF, has urged Google to make it easier for people to remove photos of themselves on Street View. Jeschke says this still doesn't totally solve the problem, since most people wouldn't know where they would have been photographed. She believes Google should make it a priority to blur faces or remove people from photographs. The company should have the technology to do that, she says, since it has the "best programmers in the country."
Filadelfo wrote that Google "takes privacy very seriously." The company has set up a simple, online process that allows clearly-identified individuals to request that their photos be removed.
Google, whose informal corporate motto is "Don't Be Evil," currently doesn't have any plans to automatically blur faces in Street View, Filadelfo wrote, though she added that the laws may "vary by country to abide by local laws and cultural norms." Social networking blog Mashable.com reported on Nov. 30 that Street View will blur all faces and license plates in its European version when it launches.
Despite her objections to Street View, Jeschke says it does have its advantages. She used it herself to figure out what a restaurant looked like.
"But I didn't need the shots of the people in the frame to do that," she adds.
Googling around Brown
Google Street View is available in most of Providence and virtually all of the East Side. At Brown, Street View images are especially easy to view. Campus landmarks are clearly displayed and faces can be made out everywhere.
A cursory glance around Brown's campus on Street View shows nothing out of the ordinary. The photographs appear to be taken on different days, since some parts of Brown are sunny while others are not. The streets are relatively empty and there is plenty of parking, as well as construction workers, suggesting that some images were taken over the summer. Kim, the photographed student, knows his photo was taken in the fall since the friend accompanying him wasn't in Providence in the summer. The Avon Cinema on Thayer Street appears to have been photographed around early October, since "The Jane Austen Book Club" is advertised outside.
Several students interviewed on Waterman Street on a recent afternoon say they have mixed feelings about Street View in Providence. Elaine Tran '09 says she hasn't heard about Street View, but that she feels indifferent toward it.
"Random people see me on the street all the time," she says. "I really don't care."
What if she had a bad hair day or if she were picking her nose?
"I shouldn't pick my nose in public, anyway," she says.
Herman Hsu '08 felt differently.
"If there was a photo of me, I'd like to know if it's posted online," he says. He adds that a photo of someone could be embarrassing or even threaten someone's job if he or she is protesting or wearing a Halloween costume.
Eduardo Moncada GS sounded a bit concerned when told about Street View, calling it "Big Brotherish." But he says he sees its benefits.
"Say you want to visit Brown as a student from the Philippines," Moncada says. "You could see the places where you would take your classes, the dorms where you would live."
