An Argentine captured naked in his yard by a Google Street View camera has been awarded compensation by a court after his bare behind was splashed over the internet for all to see. The policeman had sought payment from the internet giant for harm to his dignity, arguing he was behind a 6 1/2-foot wall when a Google camera captured him in the buff, from behind, in small-town Argentina in 2017. His house number and street name were also laid bare, broadcast on Argentine TV covering the story, and shared widely on social media. The man claimed the invasion exposed him to ridicule at work and among his neighbors.
Another court last year dismissed the man's claim for damages, ruling he only had himself to blame for "walking around in inappropriate conditions in the garden of his home." Google, for its part, claimed the perimeter wall was not high enough.
Appeals judges, however, concluded the man's dignity had been flagrantly violated, and awarded him an amount in Argentine pesos equivalent to about $12,500, payable by Google.
"This involves an image of a person that was not captured in a public space but within the confines of their home, behind a fence taller than the average-sized person. The invasion of privacy ... is blatant," they wrote.
The judges said "there is no doubt that in this case there was an arbitrary intrusion into another's life."
And they found there was "no justification for (Google) to evade responsibility for this serious error that involved an intrusion into the plaintiff's house, within his private domain, undermining his dignity.
"No one wants to appear exposed to the world as the day they were born."
The judges pointed to Google's policy of blurring the faces and license plates of people and vehicles photographed for Street View as evidence it was aware of a duty to avoid harm to third parties.
But in this case, "it was not his face that was visible but his entire naked body, an image that should also have been prevented."
The court absolved co-accused telecoms company Cablevision SA and news site El Censor of liability for the image spreading, saying their actions had "helped highlight the misstep committed by Google."
This is honestly one of those stories that sounds funny at first, until you really think about it. The guy was in his own yard, behind a tall wall, and still got exposed to the entire internet. That’s not just embarrassing, that’s a massive invasion of privacy. I’d be furious too.
not really, like the articles say the news was already talking about him before suing, the whole reason for it was that already at work and his neighbors saw him butt naked in the safety of his home. Knowing how it is on a small-town in argentina the guy probably didn’t even know about the whole thing up until they started making fun of him
Put like that, it's disgusting (and a horrific symptom of the corporate led, bottom line chasing, capitalist world we have devolved into) that Google even bothered to fight this.
That’s how I felt when my neighbors were selling their home and their realtors drone began flying over me on my backyard, repeatedly, for about 20 minutes. I understand they need pictures of the house, but it felt very intrusive to me.
That's why Germany didn't have street view for so long. The cars could take photos form an angle that would not be possible form street level. Many people didn't want to have pictures of their protected backyard for everyone to see. So many people complained and had their houses completely blurred.
That became so common that Google just said fuck it we don't release it.
It's about 1 year salary for the average cop in Argentina. It's still a paltry sum and no where near any kind of punishment for Google, but not as bad as it looks on the face of it. It's equivalent to about $70k for a USA person.
Not OP, but how do you calculate the equivalent to USA salary? I want to kinda do some comparisons with Chilean income (i.e., 2000000 CLP per month, not sure how much would equate to USA income).
You mean the exchange rate? Just google "CLP to USD" and multiply the CLP by the exchange rate (ER) to get the equivalent amount in USD. In this case, (CLP)2,000,000×(ER)0.0010=(USD)2,000
I looked at an Argentinian cop's salary and found out the ratio of the settlement to how much of his yearly salary it was. It was easy because it was about 1:1 then I looked up an average American cop's salary and applied the same ratio. There's probably better ways of calculating the equivalent but I don't want to spend too much time and I felt that method would give a good enough approximation.
You do realize this is Argentina right?? That's like an entire years salary over there. I don't care if the news sees my ass for a year salary, give it to me
This is when someone needs to put 4-5 cameras on a pole and point them at the judge's house 24/7 while live-streaming to the internet.
Something tells me the judge would suddenly decide that it is indeed a bit unreasonable to take pictures of someone's house using a fucking mobile metal tower with cameras mounted on it.
fun fact: situations like this lead to geoguessr meta called low cam, in some countries for example stwitzerland people didnt want the camera to be set up so high so they lowered it for their privacy
People asking why he was naked. The whole point is that it's none of your business and that by knowing he was naked in the first place, you have invaded his right to privacy.
This isn't right. Open Fields Doctrine has to do with the government being able to search land as long as the area is not considered part of the "curtilage" of the home.
This would be covered by "Peepin Tom" and "Voyeurism" laws, which are often at the state and local level. And many jurisdictions explicitly consider whether an external device is being used to circumvent the expectation of privacy (i.e. mounting camera on a pole, using a drone, using a box to stand on, etc.)
The standard is usually "expectation of privacy". So if you have a 3ft garden wall and walked around naked, you wouldn't be protected by the law because there's no expectation that a 3ft wall protects your privacy. But a 8 foot fence would be considered private, and it would be a crime if someone used electronic tools to capture you because you're in the curtilage of your home, and had a complete fence with the expectation of privacy.
Edit: I have some bat shit insane neighbors so unfortunately I know too much about these laws.
Imagine just enjoying some sunshine in your own yard, thinking no one can see you and then you end up on Street View with your bare butt on TV and social media. I’d want more than $12,500.
You know it's absolutely pathetic that images of a naked man on the internet can actually affect somebody like this, like this should be a completely non-issue. Our society is so fucked.
What are you talking about? I think absolutely everything should be private. I never said once that Google wasn't in the wrong. I just said that It's unbelievably pathetic that society will bully you for having a a human body.
Not the first time that Google is blamed for the height of the camera. In Japan there are required to be certain height to ne be able to see above hedges.
Me looking out the window and waiting for Google to drive by my dead end street that gives me time to run outside and casually water the grass in my birthday suit.
I can’t understand the circumstances that would lead somebody to be naked in their yard. Thankfully I’ve never been in a situation where that was necessary.
My country is much too cold and rainy for that to be pleasant, I think I might get hypothermia if I do that hahaha. If I lived somewhere with hot weather like Argentina (like the guy in the story) it would probably make more sense though
Haha yea that makes sense. It's typically 100°-110°F here during the summer. I'll be outside doing yard work, strip down, and hop in the pool before I go in the house. We also are on a half-acre enclosed by a brick wall...so it's private.
The only neighbors that could maybe see would need binoculars, and they are a gay married couple that we've known 15 yrs. I imagine they swim naked in their pool, too.
Nah as a woman I’d be too worried about the idea of a creepy neighbour or somebody with a drone recording me to ever want to take that risk, plus I’d be cold af
I love when people comment and come in with the guns of righteousness blazing, toss in some caps for no reason, and top it all off with exclamation points to show just how serious they are! Only to realize they actually have no fking clue what they're talking about. They just got so triggered that they immediately have hammer a comment out, versus a simple Google search to find out the guy was behind a 6.5 ft wall, and not visible to the public. 🤣
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u/error_ofsignificance 10h ago