Google's Latest CAPTCHA Codes Draws Criticism

Here’s a little bit more from the technology front.  Google has been accused of another privacy violation.  Any tech company that owns a user base numbering in the billions can make a move that draws criticism.  Sometimes that criticism is valid, and sometimes not.  Take, for example, Google’s latest twist on CAPTCHA technology.  We’re used to the string of characters in twisted fonts and colors as a way to distinguish between humans and machines.  Google added words sourced from scanned books as a way of improving the text presentation of those titles.  Now, the latest twist is to use address numbers drawn from pictures of houses snapped in creating the street view in Google Maps.

Big Brother Watch is not very happy about this development, calling it a serious privacy issue by identifying the individual number of people’s homes.  Google is accused of furthering its own interests (gasp!).  Google responds that there is no identifying information that ties a picture to an individual, particularly as the pictures are close cropped to the number in question.  Techcrunch has some examples here.  I would be surprised if anyone can identify the geographic locations of the sourced numbers from the presentation.  Yes, Google knows where they come from, but they are not telling.  They use the crowd-sourced information to create a more accurate version of Google Maps.  I think we are well past the point where Street View is in its generic form a privacy violation.

One comment (quoted in the Telegraph) from Nick Pickles, Big Brother Watch director of privacy and civil liberties is "The 'Don't be evil' mantra appears to have been replaced with a thirst for knowledge."  I hardly ever conflate collecting public information with evil.  There is no doubt that some of the things Google has done with Street View are unsettling.  The “accidental” collection of unprotected Wi-Fi data by some of the collection vehicles is one, as is initially not blurring individuals captured in embarrassing situations.  The law, if not common sense, has prevailed in those situations.  Using cropped images of house numbers or street signs as CAPTCHA codes is not one of those things that would make me scared of Google.  [MG]