Word: bankston
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Bankston, though, who himself is viewable on a street view photograph walking to work, says that these Street Views represent an ominous invasion of privacy. "We're moving into a future where not only must you realize the risk that you might be photographed in public, but where it's becoming a near certainty that you will be captured any time you go out," he says. "It's indicative of the direction in which we're moving - where everything occurring anywhere is Google-able...
...There is a serious tension here, between the concepts of free speech, and open information, and the idea of privacy," says Kevin Bankston, staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation." There's definitely a privacy concern that an unmarked Google camera van can, and in fact has, captured images of people, whether in the street or in their homes, in a manner that could be embarrassing or even dangerous to them." He adds: "We don't think what Google's done here is necessarily illegal, though a few images may cross the line and may create liability. It's more...
...Despite his concerns, Bankston says that Google could end the Street View controversy with a simple solution. "Just by obscuring the faces of people," he says, "it would eliminate the privacy concerns of those attending an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting, leaving a reproductive health clinic or attending a controversial political event. Admittedly, it's a difficult computational problem, to find a way to obscure every face that can be seen through Street View, but Google has perhaps the largest braintrust that has ever existed on the planet, and if anyone could solve the problem, it would certainly be the geniuses...
...anyone in a public area. One popular website proudly touts photos of female posteriors shot by cam phones in malls and parking lots. As long as photos are not taken up someone's skirt without her knowledge, they are legal. "It's not particularly tasteful," says attorney Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil-liberties group, "but people need to be aware that whatever you do in a public space can be recorded." Ladies, watch your back. --By Carolina A. Miranda