Japanese Complain Against Google Street View

A select bunch of Japanese journalists, professors and lawyers recently demanded Google to shut down its Street View service in Japan, touting claims that it violates people’s privacy. According to the petition sent, Street View “constitutes violent infringement on citizens’ privacy by photographing residential areas, including community roads, and publishing their images without the consent of communities and citizens.” In addition, Street View helps distribute private information “more easily, widely, massively and permanently than ordinary cameras and surveillance cameras do.” Google has not let these complaints fall on dear ears, as it has already blurred faces of folks seen in Street View while deleting images of people and buildings upon request. What do you think? Are our friends across the Pacific being paranoid androids, or are their fears valid?