You may remember that a while back I blogged about a couple that were suing Google because their house had been displayed on an image in the street view feature that Google offers, which you can view here. Although Mr and Mrs Boring had the support of US National Legal and Policy Centre (NLPC), which said that “Google’s hypocrisy is breathtaking”, the case has now been dismissed from court by Judge Amy Renolds Hay.
The couple were looking for $25,000 in damages from Google, as they claimed that the images that were displayed on street view caused them “mental suffering”. As I said in my previous post, I do not see how your an image of a person’s house being displayed on Google could cause anyone “mental suffering”. While it may cause that person some upset, I think that saying you were mentally affected by this is a claim that is extremely over the top. What is even more interesting, is that The Borings were obviously not too concerned about their privacy, because they continued to give the public the opportunity to “evade it”.
The judge said: “The Borings do not dispute that they have allowed the relevant images to remain on Google Street View, despite the availability of a procedure for having them removed from view. Furthermore, they have failed to bar others’ access to the images by eliminating their address from the pleadings, or by filing this action under seal.” I agree with Judge Renolds Hay – although this couple were repeatedley given the opportunity to have the image removed, and to secure their privacy through other methods, they chose not to, and I believe personally that this lawsuit was probably more about claiming compensation rather than solving a supposed issue.
The claim that I made in my last post that mental suffering is perhaps slightly over the top was also similar to the views of Judge Renolds Hay, when she wrote in her decision: “The plaintiffs’ failure to take readily available steps to protect their own privacy and mitigate their alleged pain suggests to the Court that the intrusion and that their suffering were less severe than they contend”.
I believe that the verdict was correct, that the display of the house on Google would perhaps have not caused as many problems for The Borings as they claimed and that even if the case was succesful for The Borings, that $25,000 is certainly too much of a reward for something which obviously hasn’t caused too much damage.