Marseille edit
Google Street View was launched in 2007, it is accessible on Google Maps (the little man in the top left corner, just below the navigation arrows) and Google Earth. This tool enables you to visit the streets of large cities virtually. Street View uses Immersive Media, a technology that provides a 360 degree view of the street at any point. A vehicle equipped with cameras circulates in the streets by taking photos rather than a software, developed by Google.
In the beginning, only a few US cities were accessible, the service has currently spread to other countries (France, Spain, Italy, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, Portugal, Canada, Taiwan, etc.).
What does the street where your friend lives look like? Will there be stores in the area where you will walk? The answers: you can find them easily on the Internet, by using search engines of Google Street View. A service that reveals a lot of information that can potentially infringe upon your privacy ... When Google Street View was launched, internet users quickly spotted contentious images: photographs that show an interior through a window, faces of passers-by, even people leaving sex shops. Since then, the search engine automatically blurs the faces and license plates and also some images on request.
Currently, Google does not ask for permission based on the principle that photographs are taken from public space and therefore do not infringe privacy. The current jurisprudence in France provides that it is for the owner of a property to prove that the publication of a photograph of the property causes an "abnormal disturbance" since a judgment of the Court of Cassation from 2004. Also see our related article on the extension of Google Street View service