Court orders Google to pay $12,500 in damages over naked Street View image

An Argentine police officer has been awarded approximately $12,500 in compensation after a Google Street View camera captured him naked in his yard. An appeals court ruled that the tech company "flagrantly violated" the man's dignity by publishing the image online.

The incident occurred in 2017 when a Google Street View camera, while photographing a small town in Argentina, captured an image of the man from behind while he was unclothed in his garden. The man stated he was behind a nearly 2-meter (6.5-foot) wall at the time. The published image did not blur his home address, which led to the photo being shown on local television and shared across social media, causing the man ridicule at work and in his neighborhood.

The man sought payment from Google for the harm to his dignity. Initially, a lower court dismissed his claim, stating he was to blame for "walking around in inappropriate conditions in the garden of his home". Google's defense argued that the perimeter wall was not high enough to provide a reasonable expectation of privacy.

However, an appeals court overturned the initial ruling, with the judges concluding that the man's privacy was blatantly invaded. They wrote, "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 court found that there was an "arbitrary intrusion into another's life" and no reason for Google to avoid responsibility for the error. "No one wants to appear exposed to the world as the day they were born," the judges added. The court also pointed to Google's own policies as a sign of its responsibility.

Google does automatically blur faces and license plates in Street View images, but the judges noted that while a face was not visible, the man's "entire naked body" was, and this "should also have been prevented". Interestingly, the court did not hold the other two accused entities in this case — telecoms company Cablevision SA and news site El Censor, liable for the image's spread. The judges stated that their actions "helped highlight the misstep committed by Google".

This is not the first time Google's Street View has faced legal challenges. In 2019, Google reportedly settled for $13 million over the collection of private information through the project. In another case in 2010, the company paid a couple $1 in damages after acknowledging it trespassed to photograph a house in the Pittsburgh area.