Anyone anywhere can now virtually experience Northwestern from street level with Street View, an interactive feature of Google Maps that enables users to “walk” down any street in town online.
Google Inc.’s Street View became available in Chicago and some surrounding suburbs Tuesday. Google originally launched Street View in May, and it was initially available in San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami. Five months later, Street View has spread to 10 other cities around the U.S.
The online service gives users a 360-degree street level view of the area from Chicago Heights on the southern end, up the coast to the Illinois-Wisconsin state line and west into some Chicago suburbs. Both of NU’s campuses are included.
“This is fun, I didn’t know they launched this yet,” said McCormick freshman Will O’Neill as he virtually walked West on Lincoln St., turned left on Sheridan Road and proceeded south to Foster St. using Street View.
Vice President of University Relations Alan Cubbage said Google did not need permission to shoot the photos of NU as long as the photographers remained on public property.
“But if someone takes pictures physically on campus for commercial purposes, they have to get permission from the university, specifically from the Office of University Relations,” he said.
But users can use the feature to travel up and down Campus Drive, past buildings such as the University Library and the Block Museum of Art, which is private property. Cubbage said Google never asked for permission to take these pictures.
“I don’t know if we’re going to do anything about it, but if they are going to use photos of private property for commercial use, then they must have permission from the university,” he said.
Cubbage said now that NU is aware of these pictures, they will decide if they will take action.
“There obviously looks like there’s no harm done, but we’ll need to contact our general counsel’s office and make a determination (on) what, if anything, we would like to do,” he said.
Street View has been a controversial service since its launch. Pictures of people doing everything from walking into an adult bookstore to getting ticketed by the police have appeared on the feature.
NU law professor Jim Speta, who specializes in Internet and communications law, said he has seen pictures on Street View where people’s faces were clearly identifiable. However, as long as these people are in public view, anyone can take their photo, he said.
“From a privacy perspective, the law is fairly straightforward: If you’re out in public, you’re out in public,” he said. “The basic rule is if somebody is out in public you can do whatever you want with it short of making them the mascot of a particular product.”
But because Google entered private property to take its photos, Speta said students that appear in these photos may have a claim. In the event you see yourself on Street View, Speta said the best thing to do is to report it to Google.
Google spokeswoman Megan Quinn said the company will remove any images taken on private property.
“The directions our drivers are given is to only remain on public roads,” she said.
Quinn could not give specific dates as to when the photos were taken, and said they could be anywhere from a few months to a year old. First-year McCormick graduate student Xiaowan Zhang said she understands why some people would see Street View as an invasion of privacy. She said she wouldn’t want to have her photo on Google.
“But it’s difficult for them to avoid this, people are always on the street,” she said.
Medill sophomore Alyssa Wells said she doesn’t have a problem with Street View.
“It doesn’t really bother me because its not an invasion of privacy, anyone can take a picture,” she said. “It does suck for the people that did get caught, because they will be forever immortalized in Google.”
Reach Tommy Giglio at [email protected].
