Argentine court Rules Google Violated Man’s Privacy in Street View Incident
A man who was unknowingly captured naked by Google Street View in his garden has won an appeal against the tech giant, with an Argentine court ruling that Google violated his privacy by not blurring his image. The decision overturns an earlier ruling that had dismissed his claim.
The incident occurred when the man was in his garden and was captured by a Google Street View car. The image, which showed him naked, was subsequently published online. Following the publication, the man faced significant emotional distress, including teasing from anonymous social media users, neighbors, and coworkers. Two years after the event, in 2019, he filed a lawsuit seeking damages for moral harm and violation of intimacy. However, his initial claim was rejected by the court, which argued that he had been in his own garden and could have taken steps to enhance his privacy, such as building a higher wall.
The case was later reviewed by the Court of Appeals, which sided with the Argentine man. the appellate court persistent that Google committed a serious error by failing to blur the individual’s body before publishing the image, thereby constituting a clear violation of his privacy. The court ordered Google to compensate the affected individual and to instantly remove the image from its servers. Furthermore, Google was subjected to a daily fine of approximately 67 euros for each day the image remained accessible online.Notably, the ruling did not hold media outlets that republished the image responsible, placing the sole liability on the technology company.
