In a sign that Google's infamous motto of "Do no evil" is just that, company CEO Eric Schmidt said people upset by "Street View" can simply move.
Google's street mapping service has upset many over the years by taking pictures of their homes and sometimes capturing what probably shouldn't be captured.
Schmidt made the remarks during an appearance on CNN's new show “Parker Spitzer" last Friday. But it is unclear whether the Google front man was serious or joking.
“Street View, we drive exactly once,” he told the hosts. “So, you can just move, right?”
Co-host Kathleen Parker tried to get Schmidt to clarify his statements but unfortunately not a lot of clarity was added.
“We’re very careful to not have real-time information about where people are,” he said. The entire interview was ironically started by interesting comments Schmidt made in a candid interview with the Atlantic.
Everyone has already heard Google say that on numerous occasions. But unfortunately we have all also heard Schmidt say some pretty off the wall stuff as well.
In August, Schmidt said he believed many youngsters would eventually have to change their names in the future to escape their digital past. Weeks later he said he was joking.
But Schmidt's sense of humor has allowed him to slip enough punchlines that you have to wonder whether he really is joking or not.
John Paczkowski of All Things Digital noticed the trend and took the time to document some of Schmidt's more colorful comments for your enjoyment.
- Addressed criticisms of Google’s stance on privacy by saying, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
- Claimed people want Google to “tell them what they should be doing next.”
- Said of Google, “We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.”
- Said this: “One day we had a conversation where we figured we could just try to predict the stock market. And then we decided it was illegal. So we stopped doing that.”
- Suggested name changes to protect adults from the Web’s record of their youthful indiscretions.
- Said this: “What we’re really doing is building an augmented version of humanity, building computers to help humans do the things they don’t do well better.”
CNN and Google must have noticed too. Since the statements were made on Friday, the interview has been edited on CNN's website. Google of course is down playing the statement in the company's official clarification.
