An Argentinian will be compensated by Google after having been photographed in the simplest device in the interior courtyard of his house by the Street View navigation service, according to a court decision unveiled on Thursday by the local press.
The complainant, a member of the police, felt humiliated after the broadcast in a local television news and on the social networks of this nude photo, taken in 2017 by the cartography of the American tech giant.
The face – usually blurred by Google Street View – was not visible in the photo because the man appeared from behind, but the identification of his home made him easily recognizable in Bragado, a small town located 210 km from Buenos Aires, which made him the target of mockery from neighbors and colleagues, according to La Composau.
Google defended himself by saying that the house wall was too low and that the complainant had not ‘preserved his intimacy’.
At first instance last year, a judge said that the man was responsible for the situation because he was walking in inappropriate conditions in the garden of his house ‘.
11’000 euros
On appeal, justice, however, has given reason to the complainant, ruling that the wall, 2 meters high, was sufficiently high, and that the company had shown intrusion ‘in the complaint of the complainant, undergoing his dignity’.
‘No one wants to appear in the eyes of the world as God gave birth to,’ underlines the judgment.
The National Civil Call Chamber of Buenos Aires condemned Google Argentina and Google Inc. to pay the complainant 16 million pesos, or nearly 11,000 euros, as repairs for damage to dignity.
The Court has acquitted the telecoms company Cablevision SA and the EL CENSOR information site, co-accused in this case, of any responsibility in the dissemination of the image, believing that their actions had helped to highlight Google’s error.
/ATS