Remember the first time you zoomed in on Google maps and realised that you could see actual photos of your street? When you discovered that you could take a virtual stroll down pretty much any road in the world, or check out the street in front of that new apartment you just spotted an ad for?
While all of the images taken by Google’s magical multi-direction photo car were technically taken on public property, there have been numerous complaints over “invasions of privacy” as, in the process of snapping the world’s streets, many ordinary people going about their day- be it gardening, walking the dog or leaving a sex shop with an armful of porn mags- were caught on camera and immortalised forever for the entire world to see.
Naturally, Google took steps towards protecting the privacy of the unlucky few caught in embarrassing situations and blurred out the faces of those who happened to be out and about, so it’s not unusual to see shots of busy cities like Tokyo populated by people who look like they could be in a Japanese Adult Movie.
But when they go so far as to blur out KFC’s Colonel Sanders’ face, it just looks weird…
IT Media’s Netorabo site has put together a fine collection of shots, showing just how dedicated to protecting our privacy Google really is. And the result is both fantastic and weird at the same time.
Despite the man himself having been dead for more than 30 years, the cream-suited plastic effigy of the king of herbs and spices remains standing outside many branches of KFC. And each one’s face, it would seem, has been blurred out by Google’s clever computers…
▼ Your privacy shall be respected, Colonel!
▼We will protect your honour!
▼None shall lay eyes upon thy divine visage! None!
Sure enough, a quick check on Google Maps shows that the Colonel’s face has been wiped clean from pretty much every location’s photo. Not even smaller branches like the one in my own town managed to evade Google’s face-recognition machines…
But with the number of compaints Google received when Street View was first unveiled, perhaps this mass of blurry blobs is testament to the technological advances the company’s face-recognition software has made. Better that the computers be extremely liberal with their privacy pen than to have ones face appear next to an establishment of questionable nature.
After all, without Google Maps’ keen eye for a human face, people like this unsuspecting chap, who, for all we know, was just strolling by this “health” shop at the time, would have been caught out!
Thank you, Google Maps! Thank you for protecting our privacy!
Source: IT Media