Google Street View Car Clicks Picture of Naked Man, Pays Rs 11 Lakh for Privacy Breach

The court pointed out that Google’s own policy includes automatic blurring of faces and license plates, proving that the company acknowledges a responsibility to prevent harm to individuals. 

Buenos Aires: A man from a small Argentine town successfully sued Google after its Street View car captured him naked behind his property wall. The incident, which occurred in 2017, led to a legal battle over privacy and dignity. The man, a police officer, argued that the exposure humiliated him among colleagues and neighbors, as his unblurred house number and street name were visible in the image. His photograph, showing his bare backside, circulated online without consent.

Although a lower court dismissed his case in 2019, blaming him for being outdoors “in an inappropriate state,” an appeals court recently overturned the ruling. Google maintained that the wall surrounding his property was not high enough to guarantee privacy.

The appellate judges disagreed, stating that the man was within his private property behind a fence “taller than the average person,” and described the privacy breach as “blatant.” The court awarded him ₹11 lakh (approximately $13,000) in damages, remarking that “no one wants to be exposed to the world as they were at birth.”

Google Violates its Own Policy

The court pointed out that Google’s own policy includes automatic blurring of faces and license plates, proving that the company acknowledges a responsibility to prevent harm to individuals. In this case, however, judges noted that the man’s “entire naked body” was visible and the image should have been flagged for review.

According to Google’s Street View guidelines, the company uses advanced technology to obscure identifiable faces and vehicle license plates in images captured for the service. The policy also states that users can request additional blurring, such as of their entire house, car, or body, through the “Report a Problem” feature.