What Does Google Street View Bring About?: Privacy, Discomfort and The Problem of Paradoxical Others

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the problems of Google Street View (GSV hereafter) in terms of what we call the discomfort theory of privacy and the concept of other. The discomfort theory of p rivacy claims that the invasion of privacy does not lie in the infringement of the right to privacy but the discomfort incurred in the form of the invasion of two kinds of human values: autonomy and human relationship. A other of someone is, in short, some unknown person who identies that someone but whom you cannot identify. To introduce and justify the discomfort theory of privacy, we survey the problems of GSV in Japan and point out that the GSV causes the discomfort of some sort which has not been classied properly in the currency accepted understanding of the encroachment on privacy and the right to privacy in Japan. Next, we analyze the concept of a paradoxical other, and show that the nature of discomfort arising from the GSV concerns certain essential values such as autonomy and the quality of human relationships discussed in previous studies. According to our analysis, the potentially increasing existence of paradoxical others in the era of the Internet and social media is likely to prompt more frequent incurrence of the relevant kinds of discomforts. We show how what the GSV does symbolizes a society which depreciates people’s basic values of autonomy and good human relationship.