Internet giant Google has won a privacy case against a couple who claimed the company’s “Street View” picture of their house was an invasion of their rights.
US Federal Court judge Amy Reynolds Hay rejected the claims of the couple who sought cash damages for the pictures of their Pennsylvania home taken on a private road. Aaron and Christine Boring filed lawsuits involving trespassing, negligence and invasion of privacy charges.
“The court is not obligated to accept inferences unsupported by facts set out in the complaint,” the judge wrote in her ruling, “and is not required to accept legal conclusions framed as factual allegations.
“While it is easy to imagine that many whose property appears on Google’s virtual maps resent the privacy implications, it is hard to believe that any – other than the most exquisitely sensitive – would suffer shame or humiliation.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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