Australian Privacy Commissioner Says Aerial Property Photos Not a Privacy Violation

An Australian Internet service that allows a member of the public to view an aerial photograph of any Sydney street address has some privacy critics concerned. The images, available for a modest charge from Webmap Pty Ltd, show an aerial view of a single property and its two closest neighbours at a scale of 1:750. The images are sufficiently detailed to view positions of decks, pools, boundaries and access points. People are visible but not easily identifiable in the images. Each aerial photo in the database is updated every three years. Critics charge that the service invades the privacy of individuals by allowing access to information about their properties that would not otherwise be available to the public. The street address of an individual can easily be linked to the identity of the owner, it is argued. Aerial photography per se is legal in Australia, which has a free skies policy. The Australian Federal Privacy Commissioner has said that the images published by the service likely fall outside of that country's definition of "personal information". To read an article on the Webmap service from the Sydney Morning Herald, visit: www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/08/1036308466807.html For more information on the Webmap service, visit the company's website at: www.webmap.com.au