In a rare legal rebuke of Big Tech’s overreach, an Argentine policeman has won a \$12,500 judgment against Google after the company’s Street View camera captured him naked in the privacy of his own yard — exposing his image online for the world to see. The incident, which took place behind a six-and-a-half-foot wall, became a national embarrassment for the officer and a cautionary tale about the creeping erosion of personal privacy in the digital age.
Despite Google’s efforts to argue that the officer’s property wasn’t “private enough” to warrant legal protection, an Argentine appeals court wasn’t buying it. The judges called the incident a “blatant” invasion of privacy and shredded Google’s defense in a scathing ruling that held the tech giant responsible for failing to uphold its own standards of user protection.
A Wall Wasn’t Enough for Google
The unnamed officer was inside the confines of his home’s yard when Google’s camera-equipped vehicle snapped a photo that ultimately exposed him completely online. Though he was behind a wall taller than most people, his body was still visible to the lens — and later, to the public — as the image made its way onto Google Maps.
Google contended that the yard was visible from the street and therefore didn’t qualify as private, but the appellate court disagreed emphatically.
“Involves an image of a person that was not captured in a public space but within the confines of their home, behind a fence taller than the average-sized person,” the judges wrote. “The invasion of privacy … is blatant.”
The court went further, criticizing the company for what they called an “arbitrary intrusion into another’s life,” and noted that there was “no justification” for Google to avoid accountability for what it described as a “serious error.”
“No one wants to appear exposed to the world as the day they were born,” the judges wrote. “It was not his face that was visible but his entire naked body.”
Google’s Own Policy Comes Back to Haunt Them
Ironically, Google’s Street View privacy policy played a key role in the case. The policy clearly states that the company employs face- and license-plate-blurring technologies to protect people’s identities and even offers an option for individuals to request that their homes or bodies be blurred.
However, the policy only kicks in *after* the image has been published — and after someone goes through the trouble of reporting it. In this case, the damage was already done by the time the image was seen and ridiculed, leaving the officer exposed in more ways than one.
This isn’t Google’s first privacy mishap. The tech giant’s mapping tools have been the source of multiple controversies. Most recently, Google Maps users spotted a highly classified U.S. Navy submarine — the autonomous “Manta Ray” — docked at Port Hueneme in California. Despite the vessel’s classified status, internet sleuths were able to view it on an open platform, raising fresh questions about national security and corporate responsibility.
Big Tech and the Decline of Privacy
This case underscores a growing trend: multinational tech corporations like Google act with increasing impunity, capturing and storing massive amounts of data with minimal oversight and often little concern for individual rights. Whether it’s compromising national security or violating the dignity of private citizens, Big Tech has shown time and again that they will push boundaries — until someone pushes back.
And in Argentina, at least, someone finally did.
The ruling should serve as a wake-up call not just for Silicon Valley, but for governments across the globe. If even an Obama-appointed judge in the U.S. can recognize the need to uphold basic standards of privacy (as seen recently in Wyoming’s voter ID law ruling), then perhaps the tide is beginning to turn.
Because in an age where tech giants want access to your emails, your conversations, your backyard, and apparently your bare skin — someone needs to say, “Enough.”
