Google Earth and Google Street View allow users to browse mapping data while seeing actual photographs of the geographic areas. The photographs for Google Street View that are taken from the Google Earth cameras can show a surprising amount of detail, including the faces of actual people going about their daily activities. Therefore, a person who goes out to get mail in pajamas might be caught on camera. Some critics of Google Earth and Street View have pointed out the potential privacy issues, as the people whose faces are captured on camera are discernible by anyone who visits the site. Moreover, the satellite images used for the overhead maps placed in Google Earth's mapping function can reveal buildings that might otherwise be hidden from view. This could pose security or privacy threats, as members of secret organizations can no longer count on their privacy.
The power of Google Earth is such that it is raising concerns about privacy related to one's religious affiliation. As Nizza (2007) points out, "entering and leaving places like domestic violence shelters, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, fertility clinics and controversial religious or political events" is all potentially captured on camera (p. 1). It seems preposterous that a person would balk at their religion being broadcast on the Internet, when by definition a religious event is a social gathering. Even if a person objects to their picture being posted on the Internet by Google, an innocent bystander might take that same picture and post it on a blog. Of course, the difference is that Google Earth is viewed regularly...
If a boss sees an employee going to a Church or a Mosque on Google Earth and objects, that employee might be fired. In these cases, though, the courts would easily show that any firing on the basis of religious affiliation is squarely unconstitutional and would result in a fine for the employer. The only exception is in cases where the employer admits that it is a religious or faith-based organization and maintains a hiring policy in which only members of their faith are employees. In cases like those, employees would be fraudulently representing themselves if they were members of a different faith than the one they pretended to be.
Privacy regarding one's religious affiliation is a right, but only to a degree. According to Google, "Google Earth contains only information that is readily available from both commercial and public sources. For example, this same information is available to anyone who flies over or drives by a piece of property," ("Images and Privacy Concerns," 2012). As Knapp (2011) points out, "Not only is it legal to take pictures from any public area, but no one should be doing anything in public that they don't want others to know." Although Google Earth might make some individuals uncomfortable, the fact remains that it does not infringe on privacy…
