A lawyer representing Google said, during the proceedings of a lawsuit against the company over its Street View product, said:

Today’s satellite-image technology means that even in today’s desert, complete privacy does not exist.

Despite the palpable and thunderous outrage from privacy absolutists, that is (with one caveat) a true statement.  If you’re standing outside you don’t have complete privacy.

Think about it: If someone passing by on the street can see you standing in your back yard, or can see you standing in your living room through a window, you don’t have an expectation of privacy.  Your are publicly visible, and as such you don’t have a right to expect that they not look at you.

Google, admittedly, has taken this to an extreme.  With cameras all firmly located on publicly-accessible property they are gathering, archiving and making readily accessible to millions images of people and places from all over the world.  This upsets some people who don’t want to be on the internet, but the privacy they are demanding is a level of privacy that has never existed.

It used to be that only your neighbor, or the random passer-by, would see you out mowing your lawn or sitting in your living room reader.  But now there’s a potential for a Google to take a picture and put it on the internet.

Is that a good thing?  I have mixed feelings, but certainly there’s nothing illegal about it under current law.  If we want it to be illegal then we need to change our laws.