To paraphrase a particular Seinfeld episode, it usually helps to know when not to take it out. At the end of a first date, w/o warning, in the car… during dinner, over the lobster bisque. Common-sense places. And apparently everywhere else, as a particular Frenchman proved this week, when, after being ‘caught’ (and published) on Google Street View peeing in his front yard, decided to sue for 10,000 euros. And since he’s “the laughing stock of his entire neighborhood,”could they please take the f*cking photo down as well?
According to Mashable, Europeans have taken more of a stand on privacy issues and publication of private data with social networking platforms like Facebook and Google as of late. As France has recently launched an investigation into whether European law clashes with Google’s re-vamped privacy policy, this seems like it could just be icing on the cake.
While the issue was bound to come to a head in one form or another, certain questions do arise: Why didn’t the guy just go inside and pee there? Or maybe do it in the backyard… it kind of looks like he was washing his car, so perhaps being surrounded by running water and spraying and stuff just urged forward the sensation.
But in the guy’s defense, certain facets of this whole sh*tstorm do seem kinda creepy. Maybe not so much that the dude’s house is being watched, as the fact that live video is being streamed from it, and published online. What if you could see inside the windows? What does it mean for those of us over here who are having our houses watched? Putting the fact that it is peeing, and that plenty of other sometimes-funny Google Street View stories have taken place, if the video’s subject matter was more serious, more Europeans (and people in general) might be up in arms over this whole thing. As the investigation continues, we’ll have to wait and see.
Jeff Nau – who has written 1264 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
Jeff Nau is a main contributor to the Jace Hall Show covering pop culture and music trends in the nerd community. He has contributed to San Diego City Beat, 944, and Ill Literature, amongst others, and spends his spare time working as an artist and photographer.

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