A Frenchman has taken Google to court after a picture of him relieving himself in his front garden was published on their Street View application, which he claims has made him the laughing stock of his village.
The man, aged around 50, is seeking around $13,300 in damages from Google and is demanding that the photograph be taken down. He claims that despite his face being blurred, he was easily recognizable by the 3,000 people that live in his village in the Maine-et-Loire region, Northwest France.
In a statement that could only have been made by a Frenchman, the man’s lawyer, Jean-Noel Bouillard, explained,
“Everyone has the right to a degree of secrecy. In this particular case, it’s more amusing than serious. But if he’d been caught kissing a woman other than his wife, he would have had the same issue.”
The man in question thought he was safe to take a pee behind his fence, however, Google’s lens caught him as one of their camera cars, which have cameras hoisted on frames on their roofs, drove past.
Google’s lawyer for the case, named by local daily newspaper Ouest France as Christophe Bigot, is apparently pleading that the case be dismissed. The court, in the nearby city of Angers, is due to give its verdict on March 15.
By Rebecca Jones
Twitter: @RebeccaEJones
