Is My Laptop A Viable Tool To Invade Your Privacy?-Such and Other Critical Legal Issues Generated By Google Earth

• Author: Debadyuti Banerjee
• Position: National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, India
• Pages: 260-269

Journal of International Commercial Law and Technology Vol. 5, I ssue 4 (2010)

260

“Is My Laptop A Viable Tool To Invade Your Privacy?”—Such and Other

Critical Legal Issues Generated By Google Earth

Debadyuti Banerjee

National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, India

debadyutib@gmail.com

Abstract. One of the latest t echnologies to create a controversy is Google Earth, Google’s Satellite

Imaging technology. It is a useful educational, entertainment and navigational tool, but countries like

Australia, China, India, etc have expressed concern about privacy and surveillance issues especially

in the context of increased terrorism and state secrets being exposed to the general populace.

Developed countries like the USA, UK and other European countries have not until now shown any

interest in stringent action against Google as th e current level of technology does n ot cause great

concern as to what it does and where that technology is going. The option open to aggrieved nations

are either to approach the US Government to ask its regulators to crack down or approach the United

Nations on the basis of the Principles Relating to Remote Sensing adopted in 1986, which states that

space imager y “shall not be conducted in such a manner detrimental to the legitimate rights and

interests of t he sensed [satellite scann ed] state”. A number of legal issues could arise regarding at

what point geospatial information becomes personal information. In this light, this paper would

analyze how far a technology of the calibre of Google Earth can affect the lives a nd liberties of an

ordinary citizen. Though cases like Alan Boring v. Google, Smith v . Abandoned Ship, Kiryat Yam v.

Google have been filed, they have not been very definitive in the arena. So the author will look at

the prin ciples of Tort law like Trespass (Hinman v. Pacific Air Transport), Nuisance (Brandes v.

Mitterling), Strict Products Liability for inaccuracies in the program (Brocklesby v. United States)

and Intellectual Property Rights (Skyline Software Systems, Inc. v. Keyhole, Inc.) to analyze probable

issues and suggest plausible solutions to this conundrum within the existing international legal

framework. In doing so, the doctrinal method shall be used and the author will study the various

case laws, documents and state reactions to formulate the answers to the issues raised in this paper.

1 Introduction

“You have zero Privacy. Get over it.”

--Scott McNealy, CEO, Sun Microsystems Inc1

In the surge of innovative int ernet technologies, one of the latest to create a huge controversy has been the

Google’s Satellite Imaging technology, Google Earth. Google bought Keyhole in October 2004 and launched

Google Earth in June 2005.2 This innovative approach to the way the world visualized locating places and

embodies a true blending of the Internet and the outer space utilities. Google In c. provided the world with a

double-edged sword—a powerful tool which can be used any way by the user. When Google launched its global

location tool Google Earth in June of 2005, the world was able to view full-colour satellite photos of thousands of

distant areas from around the globe. It brought the whole planet to the fingertips. One has only to download the

free software and type in any street address, the longitude and latitude of any area, or even terms such as

‘Pyramids’ or ‘Taj Mahal’, and within seconds the location comes into focus. One can even zoom in close enough

to make out individual cars in a driveway.

There is a range of companies providing this particular Internet service, but the most popular of th em is

undeniably Google Earth which creates Photographs by using imagery collected by Satellites as well as Aircrafts.

In the beginning, it covered only th e USA and a part of the UK. Since then, there has been in a major expansion

mode, hoping to cover many more cities in th e future. Google images are not displayed in real time and they a re

1 The comment was in response to a question at a product launch. Deborah Radcliff, A Cry for Privacy, Computer World, May

17, 1999 http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/all/990517privacy (Accessed last on 6th May, 2009).

2 Press Release, Google Press Center, Google Acquires Keyhole Corp. 27th October 2004. Available at

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/keyhole.html ( Accessed last on 6th May, 2009)