Google says "complete privacy does not exist"

Google is being sued by a Pennsylvania couple after their home appeared on Google’s Street View pages. The couple’s house is on a private road clearly marked as private property.

“Today’s satellite image technology means that even in today’s desert, complete privacy does not exist,” says Google’s submission.

“In any event, the Plaintiffs live far away from the desert and are far from hermits.”

The couple are suing Google for US$25,000 in damages, saying that the value of their property has been damaged and say they have suffered “mental stress”.

This is not the first time Google’s Street View has got the company in to trouble. The EU is arguing that people’s faces should be blurred out of images displayed.

The Street View program aims to photograph every street in the world and place the photographs online. A team of specially converted cars with cameras mounted on the roof are in constant action around the world.