The Smoking Gun has the scoop on a Pittsburgh couple that is suing Google over their “Street View” feature, which allows users to see photos taken at street-level of the address/map they’re looking up.

The couple claims that they live on a private drive, and sought out the property specifically because of the privacy it afforded them.  Now of course this street-level view has destroyed this privacy by providing pictures of the couple’s house.  So they’re suing for $25,000.

Now, on the one hand I find this one of the more legit complaints that someone could come up with.  I’m also intrigued that they’re only seeking $25K and not $25M.  I mean, you’re suing Google.  You’re really only going to ask for $25K?

But on the other hand, how many people were actually ever going to seek out the home of the Borings’ (yes that’s their last name) on Google?  And more importantly, by seeking out this lawsuit and not keeping the records confidential, they’ve now exposed their names, address, and photos of their home to everyone on the Net.

I actually think that this, in a weird way, brings up a good privacy issue that Google should address–I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea to have the ability to opt-out of photos of your home being posted on the Google Maps feature.  I think you’re able to opt-out of having your phone number listed in Google searches.

What I don’t know however, is if images of your home can be “private”, especially if the pictures are taken from a location not on your property.  I’m very interested to see if Google addresses this issue or if the lawsuit gets swept under the rug…because in the time I’ve written this Google has made significantly more than the $25K needed to pay the Borings off.


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