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…