The tech giant Google has been ordered to pay the equivalent of $12,500 in compensation to a police officer in Argentina after an appeals court found his privacy had been “blatantly” violated. The man sought payment in 2017 for harm to his dignity after his bare backside was captured by a passing Google Street View car and uploaded to Google Maps. To make matters worse, the man’s house number and street name were broadcast on TV and widely shared on social media in coverage of the incident. The man has alleged that the invasion of his privacy has made him the butt of jokes at work and among neighbors. An initial judgment ruled that the officer himself was at fault for “walking around in inappropriate conditions in the garden of his home,” but appeals judges found fault lies with the American tech company. “No one wants to appear exposed to the world as the day they were born,” the judges said. Google has insisted that the man’s fence was simply not high enough.
