Privacy Maven

Google Street View has just added six more cities today: Chicago; Philadelphia; Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Ore., and Tucson.

The Arizona Republic notes local reaction in Phoenix:

For all the privacy concerns Street View has generated, Google users in the Valley say they’re excited about the program being available here.

Chrisandria Hornsby, a receptionist at Snell & Wilmer LLP law firm in downtown Phoenix, said Monday that she uses Google Maps at work regularly to give directions to visitors to the office.

She said she understands the privacy concerns, but she pointed out that surveillance cameras are on various street corners capturing people out in the open.

Others are excited about the ability to give outsiders a better idea of what Phoenix is like.

“My biggest challenge has been trying to convey what our city looks like to individuals who live in Detroit during a snowstorm or in east Philly during dreaded rainstorms,” Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said. “People from throughout the world will literally be able to see what I’ve been trying to put into words.”

Reaction in Tuscon is more contentious:

For current Google Maps users, nothing looks that different; streets in Tucson appear like they always have. But after clicking on a button and then on an applicable road, users are greeted with a pop-up window of stitched-together panoramas of streets down which they can navigate.

But the idea was met coolly by some city officials Monday, who have become embattled recently in a debate over the use of surveillance cameras Downtown. While the two projects are different — the cameras are meant to catch criminals, officials say, while Google is meant to casually explore a neighborhood — they are similar in raising questions about photographs in public places.

“It’s a kind of voyeurism that is disconcerting,” said Ward 6 Councilwoman Nina Trasoff, who represents Downtown. But, she said, “It’s reflective of certain changes going on in society,” namely that technology is becoming more ubiquitous.

The Chicago Tribune notes reaction in Chicago:

Google has rolled out Street View in nine U.S. cities so far, including San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. Tuesday’s upgrade adds Chicago and five other major cities, including Philadelphia and Phoenix.

To use the service, go to maps.google.com. Type in “Chicago, IL” and click on Street View.

The application “is very powerful,” said Stephen Chau, Google’s product manager for Street View. For example, “if you’re looking for a new apartment, you can look around the area to see what the neighborhood looks like.”

You also might be able to see a building’s front door, clearly read the address and recognize the people sitting on the porch. It’s that level of detail that has alarmed privacy advocates.

“We receive about 100 complaints a week from people trying to remove their address from Street View,” said Parry Aftab, who runs Wiredsafety.org, an Internet privacy group. “We’ve tried a couple of times to get Google to remove the addresses, and we haven’t gotten the response we’ve hoped for yet. I think we’ll have to ratchet it up.”

Almost immediately after Street View launched in late May, bloggers began posting pictures of people walking down the street or girls in bikinis sunbathing at a park with images so sharp the people could be identified.

“We have various degrees of resolution that allow you to zoom in and get some details,” Chau said.

It is unclear at this point how detailed the images embedded into the Chicago maps will be because Google didn’t provide a preview of the service before its launch.

Chau would not say how far the maps stretch into Chicago.

If your image appears in Google Street View and you want to be removed, here’s how to make the request to Google.