Guy Who Was Naked in Yard Wins Street View Case

Does a person have the right to be naked in their own yard behind a 6.5-foot fence without ending up on Google Street View? An appeal court in Argentina has decided the answer is yes. The court decided that the man's dignity was "flagrantly violated" by the service and awarded him the equivalent of $12,500, CBS News reports. The man, who was photographed from behind, said he was ridiculed after the image appeared online and in a TV report covering unusual sights on Street View. He said that as a police officer in the small city of Bragado, he was a locally recognized figure and while his face wasn't visible in the image, Google displayed his street name and house number, reports La Nacion.

"This is the image of a person who was not captured in a public place, but within the confines of their home, behind a fence taller than a person of average height," the appeals court judges wrote in their ruling. "The invasion of privacy and intimacy is flagrant." The judges said "there is no doubt that in this case there was an arbitrary intrusion into another's life," per CBS. "No one wants to appear exposed to the world as the day they were born," they added. Google argued that the man's wall wasn't high enough and another court rejected his claim for damages last year, saying he had been "walking around in inappropriate conditions in the garden of his home."