Google maps' new "street view" feature causes outrage

[Pfundner]

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/...cle1870995.ece

The latest phase in Google's mission to organise the world's information — thousands of street-level photographs of major American cities — has raised questions that the search engine is invading people's privacy.

The new feature on Google's map service, called "Street View", was unveiled this week at the Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, California, but within hours of the photographs of downtown San Francisco and New York hitting the internet, bloggers were posting images of people, their faces visible, being arrested, sunbathing and urinating in public.

Posting on the website, Boing Boing, one resident of Berkeley, California, Mary Kalin-Casey said that she decided to see what her flat looked like on the site and was surprised to come across a highly detailed photograph of her cat, Monty, sitting in the window.

"I'm all for mapping, but this feature literally gives me the shakes," she wrote. "I feel like I need to close all my curtains now. I'm going to look into whether it's possible for a person to have pictures of their home removed from Google Maps. Meanwhile, I'm happy to show bb readers the photo in the interest of illustrating creepy privacy violations. Heck, the whole world can see him anyway."

The photographs, provided to Google by Immersive Media, an imaging company headquartered in Calgary, Canada, have prompted unease in part because there is no apparent attempt to blur people's faces or number plates or obscure what is happening inside private properties along the route taken by the car-mounted cameras. "

Your thoughts?

[Nikos]

June 1, 2007

Old news dude, should have gone to the academy or TD. I do think it infringes on privacy though.

[Arjun]

This feature has been available for a long time. I do think this might pose a threat to people cos robbers might be able to better plan their targets/heists.

but then again; I doubt this would stand up in the courts. Just another fact of the information era i guess

[Heinz Guderian]

mary kalin-casey sounds like one godamned crazy cat loving lonely .

[lordoftheT]

Dont see how this is a problem. I mean there's nothing in the pictures that you can't see by just walking past the house.

[removeduser_487563287433]

The reason the OP is slightly confused is because the feature has just been introduced for UK streets. Think less outrage and more mild amusement as the British people hunt down images of public urination and Dave Gorman.

[Tominokar]

The reason the OP is slightly confused is because the feature has just been introduced for UK streets. Think less outrage and more mild amusement as the British people hunt down images of public urination and Dave Gorman.

Well, the media at least is trying to convince us that we're outraged.

[lordoftheT]

Guess that means your country has a lower population of conspiracy theorists and crazy cat ladies.

[Garrigan]

Guess that means your country has a lower population of conspiracy theorists and crazy cat ladies.

We do.

And trust me, we're ing pissed off about it.

[Valiant Champion]

I live in a small town on a dead end street and never imagined google street view would go up that street but it did. Not all the way up to my house but you can see my cars and truck pretty clearly. A pine tree blocks the view to my house.

I feel kind of threatened by it personally.

Why?

It is an excellent tool for burglers, stalkers and organized crime to use to case peoples houses.

On the other end of the balances it is a prime tool for Obama's youth brigades to case your house when they decide to raid it to take your steak knives and baseball bats.

[lordoftheT]

I live in a small town on a dead end street and never imagined google street view would go up that street but it did. Not all the way up to my house but you can see my cars and truck pretty clearly. A pine tree blocks the view to my house.

I feel kind of threatened by it personally.

Why?

It is an excellent tool for burglers, stalkers and organized crime to use to case peoples houses.

On the other end of the balances it is a prime tool for Obama's youth brigades to case your house when they decide to raid it to take your steak knives and baseball bats.

Again they can already get this information my simply driving by in a car.

[Valiant Champion]

Again they can already get this information my simply driving by in a car.

It makes it much more convenient and plus a criminal can case a lot of places in higher volume.

Also tin foil hats don't work. A faraday cage does though. It's been scientifically proven to stop all communication based radio waves.

[Tominokar]

It is an excellent tool for burglers, stalkers and organized crime to use to case peoples houses.

Burglars who normally can't drive and are too fat and lazy to walk down the street presumably?

On the other end of the balances it is a prime tool for Obama's youth brigades to case your house when they decide to raid it to take your steak knives and baseball bats.

And I hear they're developing mind-reading devices to detect whether anyone is thinking of harbouring kitchen knives, but tin foil hat should take care of that.

[Ishoss]

Burglars who normally can't drive and are too fat and lazy to walk down the street presumably?

What's more efficient: Driving up and down streets all day looking for a nice place to burgle or just fire up Google Earth and watch it on your computer?

Not that this really bother me, though.

[Tominokar]

What's more efficient: Driving up and down streets all day looking for a nice place to burgle or just fire up Google Earth and watch it on your computer?

Not that this really bother me, though.

What exactly would you be looking for on Google maps though? The images are pretty low resolution. You can't see into windows because of the reflection, and you're completely limited to the perspective of the road.

[Valiant Champion]

What exactly would you be looking for on Google maps though? The images are pretty low resolution. You can't see into windows because of the reflection, and you're completely limited to the perspective of the road.

Structure of the house, the composition of the doors, How easy it would be to access the house by the windows, proximity to other houses, measure of wealth of individual by looking at his vehicles and property.

To name just a few.

[removeduser_487563287433]

I live in a small town on a dead end street and never imagined google street view would go up that street but it did. Not all the way up to my house but you can see my cars and truck pretty clearly. A pine tree blocks the view to my house.

I feel kind of threatened by it personally.

Why?

It is an excellent tool for burglers, stalkers and organized crime to use to case peoples houses.

On the other end of the balances it is a prime tool for Obama's youth brigades to case your house when they decide to raid it to take your steak knives and baseball bats.

Yes. I think we can all agree we must take up arms before Obama uses google street view to tax our pine trees.

[★Bandiera Rossa☭]

I just checked it out. I got some lulz cuz it showed my ex gf sitting in a lawn chair (in a swimsuit) in my front yard. (Sweet revenge)

[Ojf]

If we can have things like this, imagine how high easy the government can monitor your exact move

[lordoftheT]

It makes it much more convenient and plus a criminal can case a lot of places in higher volume.

That's a good point however I don't see google ever getting rid of it despite whatever problems it may cause.