After a Google Street View camera caught an Argentine man in his private garden nude, causing public embarrassment and going viral, the man was given compensation. He was given the equivalent of $12,500 in Argentine pesos after the court determined that the internet behemoth had violated his privacy and dignity.
A Google camera car drove by the man’s house in a small Argentine town in 2017. The policeman said he was behind a 6.5-foot wall and inside his property lines when the photo was taken. His street name and house number were prominently displayed, making him easily identifiable even though the picture only captured his back. After being shown on Argentine television, the picture quickly went viral on social media.
The man claimed that his neighbours and coworkers made fun of him because of the publicity. His claim was rejected by a previous court, which implied that he was at fault for “walking around in inappropriate conditions.” Judges of appeals, however, had a different opinion.
The judges stressed in their ruling that the wall was tall enough to provide privacy and that the photo was taken inside his home, not in a public area. They called the intrusion “arbitrary” and “a serious error” on Google’s part. They wrote, “No one wants to look as exposed to the world as the day they were born.”
In defence of its actions, Google claimed that the wall was too low to ensure privacy. Nonetheless, the court cited Google’s own practices of obscuring faces and license plates in Street View as evidence that the business recognises its obligation to preserve privacy. In this instance, the judges stated that it should have been avoided for the man’s entire nude body to be visible.
The court ruled that co-defendants Cablevision SA and news website El Censor were not liable because their reporting brought attention to Google’s failure rather than making the damage worse.
This case continues Google’s string of privacy-related legal troubles associated with Street View, which also includes a 2010 incident in which the company paid $1 in damages for trespassing in Pennsylvania and a $13 million U.S. settlement over data collection in 2019.