Argentine receives 10,000 euros compensation after being photographed naked by Google Street View

The man, whose image was not blurred, became a national target, with photography until he was shown on television.

A court in Argentina condemned Google to pay compensation of about $ 12 500 (approximately 10 800 euros) to a man who was photographed naked in the backyard of his home by the Google Street View car.

The case dates back to 2017, in the city of Centenario, when the man – a local police officer – took advantage of the sun in his private space, without clothes, not knowing that he was about to become viral on the internet.

The image captured by the Google vehicle was later made available on the Street View platform, making it possible for anyone to access it. Eventually, the photography of the naked man began to circulate on social networks, was shared on online forums and even came to be aired on national televisionwith visible address and without any kind of blur.

Feeling humiliated, the agent claimed to have been the target of chacota by neighbors and co-workers, which motivated the lawsuit against Google. In action, the man invoked the violation of your privacy and dignity.

Initially, a court of first instance considered that he himself was responsible for exposing himself “under inappropriate conditions.” However, the appeal court had a different reading. Judges classified the situation as a “flagrant violation of privacy” and an “arbitrary intrusion in private life”, noting that be naked in a sealed backyard It is not equivalent to consenting a global public exposure, it says.

Google argued in court that the property wall was not high enough to prevent the image capture, a defense that was considered a way to blame the victim. The judges also stressed that, being the company’s practice to blur faces and enrollment for privacy reasons, the same care should have been applied in the case in question – namely, Breaking the man’s image completely blurring.

On the other hand, the court lifted the media and telecommunications operators that disclosed the image, considering that its performance fits as “involuntary disclosure” of an already exposed fact.