February 19, 2009 by James Oliver
A judge in Pennsylvania has dismissed a lawsuit against Google filed by a couple from Pittsburgh. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary in that, I know, a company Google’s size probably has hundreds of small pending lawsuits from crazies and delusionals, most of which, mercifully, will be dismissed out of hand. What made this particular one interesting though was the precedent it set.
The suit related to Google Street View, an application that many expect to be fairly controversial due to the fact that it involves photographing pretty much every street, office and private residence in the world, which some people obviously aren’t too happy about. Aaron and Christine Boring (real surname) claimed that Google had invaded their privacy by photographing their street and house. Judge, Amy Reynolds, disagreed, finding that the Borings had not been adversely affected by the photography and also noting that for people so concerned about privacy they had taken very few steps to limit the public exposure they were getting from the court case.
“The plaintiffs’ failure to take readily available steps to protect their own privacy and mitigate their alleged pain suggests to the court that the intrusion and their suffering were less severe than they contend.”
The couple had been seeking damages of more than $25,000 dollars.
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