An Argentinian Cop Wins Legal Battle Against Google Street View
An Argentinian police officer made headlines after winning a court case against Google Street View, where he was captured naked in his own yard. The court ruled in favor of the officer, awarding him $12,500 and stating that “No one wants to appear exposed to the world as the day they were born.”
The incident took place in a small town in Argentina in 2017 when the officer was photographed in his birthday suit behind a 6-and-a-half-foot-tall wall at his home. The officer argued that the image, which also showed his house number and street name, was widely shared on social media and news networks, causing him embarrassment and ridicule among colleagues and neighbors.
Initially, a court dismissed the officer’s claims, blaming him for “walking around in inappropriate conditions in the garden of his home.” However, an appeals court later ruled that his dignity was violated, ordering Google to compensate him for the intrusion into his privacy.
The court emphasized that the officer was not photographed in a public space but within his own home, behind a fence taller than the average human. They condemned the invasion of privacy as “blatant” and found Google at fault for not blurring out the entire naked body in the image.
While Google typically blurs faces and license plates in Street View images, they failed to do so in this case, exposing the officer’s entire naked body. Other parties involved, such as Cablevision SA and news outlet El Censor, were not held liable for publishing the embarrassing image.
