Village Mob Thwarts Google Street View Car

Village Mob Thwarts Google Street View Car

technology.timesonline.co.uk

Angry villagers formed a human chain to thwart the progress of a Google Street View car that was in the process of taking photographs of their homes.

Police were called to Broughton in Buckinghamshire yesterday, after furious villagers blocked one of the cars, complaining it was an invasion of their privacy and that the photographs would attract burglaries.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I believe this is likely to (hopefully) start a trend. I am firmly anti-Google, as I think they are keen to violate your privacy and also think they have significant ties to the government.

Lets hope this is a trend that picks up steam, although the best trend would be a massive protest in the form of not using any of their tools.

technology.timesonline.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

The least they could have done is just knocked on a few doors and asked if people were okay with having their public property photographed.

Isn't it against the law to take photos of private property without express permission anyway?

Originally posted by The Godfather of Conspira
The least they could have done is just knocked on a few doors and asked if people were okay with having their public property photographed.

Isn't it against the law to take photos of private property without express permission anyway?

Nope. Not in the least. Why would it be illegal to stand on a public street and look at private property much less take a photo of it? It's only illegal to physically trespass on private property but if you're just looking from a public street, what law have you violated?

Yeah, mobbing someone who is doing their job is a great tactic! I'm sure that will accomplish their goal.

For the moment it did accomplish their goal. The dude left the neighborhood. What they should do the next time is trash his vehicle. It is interesting though, is it not that the brains behind Google Street is a dude who is CEO of Google Europe. His pad is NOT on Google Street. Other folks have spiffed Google to have their street shot removed.

I realize that it is not against the law for someone to stand on the sidewalk outside of your house and snap photos all day. I think many folks would absolutely go outside and confront the person at the bare minimum. I am also certain that were you to call the police and they came, they would tell the person to move along or be cited for harassment, as they should.

Privacy is stolen in the same manner as freedom. One bit at a time.

I don’t understand how taking photos of public streets is invading anyone’s privacy. I could walk down that street right now (if I was in the UK) and look at it. I could take out my camera and take pictures.

I don’t get what the privacy issue is? It’s not like they are taking pictures inside your homes or back yards, they are taking snapshots of public places that anyone can visit any time or day.

This world seems to be getting dumber.

Mikey

I'll tell you how it is an invasion of your privacy. I spent a bit of time looking at every address I could remember that I have lived in that was on Google Street. One of them was a small house that sat pretty close to the street, about 20 feet. When I got as close as I could, I could see right in the front window and there was a gent standing there, inside the house. Do I have a problem with you standing in front of my house taking photos? Yes, I do. Its weird and creepy. It is a bit different though because you spent the time to actually come over to my place to do it and if I do see you, I will come out and confront you. It is different in my opinion for a company to do it where every low-life can sit at home and see your house, what kind of cars are out front, even the license plates, what you may have inside the windows.

Why is not an invasion of privacy for folks to look up your address and then go on Google Street to see what kind of place you live in? Sure they can drive by and do it, but again, that takes time and effort. I just think it leads to a stripping away from privacy simply by creating a vehicle which enables other people to glean more into your life.

Perhaps I have a low threshold when it comes to defining what I consider to be an invasion privacy. I'll grant you that. I consider it an invasion of privacy to make it so easy for folks to get a peek inside my life when I do not choose them to have it.

Originally posted by dolphinfan
For the moment it did accomplish their goal. The dude left the neighborhood. What they should do the next time is trash his vehicle.

Privacy is stolen in the same manner as freedom. One bit at a time.

No privacy lost where none existed.

I've never had a problem with pictures of my property being published on the Internet though in the past it was only the aerial views. So, now we have the street views and when I send an email for somebody to find my house it's much easier - I have a hard time being so paranoid that I'm worried about criminals using maps to burglarize me. There's always a downside to technology and perhaps you have a point, perhaps goggle should offer an opt out for paranoid types. Personally I like the tool and if I don't want people to see my house I might just have to buy enough property so they can't see it from the public road.

Advocating a confrontation or the destructing of someone’s vehicle is against the law in most civilized countries - taking pictures from public property is not. Unless you make laws banning photography or it's publication there is nothing illegal about what was done.

The rich don't usually have to deal with those types of pictures because they usually live on PRIVATE drives - thus you will never see more than their front gate published and even then they might have enough financial resources to stop that.

Cars driver should've educated the crowd about what the law says. If that wouldn't work I wouldn't mind if the car would've kept going, people in front or not. Darwin's law works here perfectly, if you are stupid enough to be in front of a moving car on purpose, you have forfitted your life.

I LOVE google street-view.

I used it to pick out my apartment here in Orlando while I was 3 hours away staying at my parents' house. Of course I checked out a few places, but it allowed me to easily inspect the neighborhood to see if it looked like a nice place (not many neighborhoods in Orlando do).

I also use it all of the time when checking directions just to see exactly where a place is, I'm sure its saved me a few wrong turns in my lifetime.

If you want so much privacy, move into a gated community (google doesn't go inside gates, my parents live in one and their house isn't on street-view), or move out to the middle of nowhere where google doesn't give a damn and you can enjoy REAL privacy.

This story reminds me of Dick Cheney getting google to block out his house like it was some secret government facility or something. Some people are just too paranoid.

So, 'we' complain when it becomes harder to take pictures of the police, but get annoyed when people are taking pictures of our houses. Just a tad hypocritical...



It is not illegal to take pictures from a public place, so no law is being broken here...and Google have stated, on television I may add, that if you find yourself or your house on Google street view and do not wish it to be there, you can contact Google and the image will be removed.

I have taken pictures of houses and streets before, with a tripod and my digital camera, for a community project I was doing... but nobody came out to stop me, so the claim people would stop a person with a camera, does not ring true everwhere either.

There is no natural and intrinsic right to privacy. You are born with life, the will to live (liberty), and free will to pursue happiness,(cry when you want food, etc) and those inalienable rights grow with you to adulthood....

But you are not born with privacy, you are born naked in the company of others. Privacy is an invention and not a right. You have no right to a fence or window shade, you must provide them for your self. You have no right to clothing or an unlisted phone number...these are inventions we earn for ourselves.

Ergo, Don't want to be photographed?, where a hat, sunglasses, close the curtains, build a fence, grow a hedge...Privacy is something you have to make for yourself. If you Grow a big hedge on the edge of your lawn, the google car an not see thru it.