Village mob thwarts Google Street View car

Village mob thwarts Google Street View car

technology.timesonline.co.uk

A spate of burglaries in a Buckinghamshire village had already put residents on the alert for any suspicious vehicles. So when the Google Street View car trundled towards Broughton with a 360-degree camera on its roof, villagers sprang into action. Forming a human chain to stop it, they harangued the driver about the “invasion of privacy”, adding that the images that Google planned to put online could be used by burglars.

As police made their way to the stand-off, the Google car yielded to the villagers. For now, Broughton remains off the internet search engine’s mapping service.

It was Paul Jacobs who provided the first line of resistance. “I was upstairs when I spotted the camera car driving down the lane,” he said. “My immediate reaction was anger; how dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent? I ran outside to flag the car down and told the driver he was not only invading our privacy but also facilitating crime.”

(visit the link for the full news article)

I thought this was interesting, and I wonder if it is a sign of a new trend. Will more people around the world begin to protest against having their homes and properties photographed without being asked first?

We live in a world where we already can be traced through our mobile phones, surveillance cameras, our activity on the internet and also through the use of creditcards. So perhaps the right to privacy regarding our homes will become more and more important to people?



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

It is not illegal to take a picture of somebodies house from a public area.

People seem to get annoyed they may not be able to take picture of the police anymore, but don't want people to take pictures of us...

And, if you or your house are caught on camera, and you don't want it to be, you can contact google and the images will be removed.

Already posted here

reply to post by StevenDye


I agree with StevenDye. This whole issue seems to be something that the papers have whipped up a conspiracy for themselves (for once it wasn't us who started it!). As can be seen, the papers don't really know which side they represent.

On one hand they would like us all to be CCTV covered 24/7 (live of course rather than a lo-res still) since 'if we have nothing to hide it is OK'. Of course, the point that you make about photographing the police, public buildings is another point of view. I noticed that one of the papers' 'inside sources' told them that G20 'Anarchists' had been using it to plan what they were going to attack. Nice one for the reporter - being able to link two stories like that makes it all sound more apocalyptic.

Get over it people - I am more concerned about the live CCTV than I am about Street View. I should stand outside my house asking people not to look at it, since that is the level of stupidity we are talking about here.

Please continue the discussion in the previously linked thread.