Facebook is changing its privacy settings again, to fall in line with the recommendations of the Canadian Privacy Commissioner. The Commissioner was primarily concerned with how much access third-party apps were getting to user data on Facebook. As a result, apps will have to be more specific about the data they use, letting you know precisely which info they need and whether they access your friends' profile info.
From a developer standpoint, this means changes to the API in the coming months, so apps will have a uniform way to tell users which data they're accessing. This could slow the growth of some of the popular viral (or spam-based, depending on your perspective) apps that rely on surreptitiously sending out messages to your entire network to get new users. With greater transparency, it'll be easier for users to make informed decisions about which information to share, and with whom.
Google Street View is a cool Google Maps feature, but it would appear that one of the Street View driver/camera operators in the Pittsburgh, PA area needs to exercise a little more common sense when recording the lay of the land. The same might be said for some of the admins who actually publish the Street View imagery to the Google web farm mothership. The Smoking Gun references Aaron and Christine Boring's lawsuit filed against Google for invading their privacy via a Street View image of their home (Google calls the litigation "unfortunate" and says it has "no merit"). The search giant has since yanked the offending photo, but TSG points out that a neighboring home also got the Extremely Up Close And Personal Treatment courtesy of one of the camera-equipped Chevy Cobalts.
The latter property belongs to the McKee family. Theirs is the only home on Goldenbrook Lane, a gravel path that becomes a paved driveway marking where the McKee's private property begins. As you can see from the top photo, the transition is plainly obvious. The Street View car drove down the driveway, right to the family's garage, shooting all the way. As a result, anyone surfing Google Maps could take a virtual walk from the nearest cross-street, down the driveway, and up to the McKee's kids' trampoline. That's not cool, and for her part, Mrs. McKee described the idea of someone filming their home in this manner as being "a little creepy." Gee, ya think? Even if the photos were taken as a result of a driver misunderstanding (perhaps he didn't know he'd be dead-ended in a private residence's driveway), the intrusive images never should have been published. Who's vetting this stuff?
