Gang of villagers chase away Google car

[1cooldude]

Google's ambitious plan to offer a 3-D street level view of communities across three continents hit a snag when angry residents of a UK village blocked the search engine's camera car from photographing their homes.
Broughton, can be seen from the air on Google Earth, but not from the ground.

Broughton, can be seen from the air on Google Earth, but not from the ground.

Fearing the appearance of their well appointed properties on the Web site would attract criminals scouting for burglary targets, villagers in Broughton, north of London, summoned the police after spotting the car.

"I was upstairs when I spotted the camera car driving down the lane," resident Paul Jacobs told The Times of London.

"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.

"This is an affluent area. We've already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks. If our houses are plastered all over Google it's an invitation for more criminals to strike. I was determined to make a stand, so I called the police."

Google's Street View project to map 360-degree images of roads and homes across the world has generated numerous complaints over privacy, despite automated software that blurs faces and car licence plates.

A Google spokesman, quoted by the UK Press Association, said: "Embarking on new projects, we sometimes encounter unexpected challenges, and Street View has been no exception.

"We know that some people are uncomfortable with images of their houses or cars being included in the product, which is why we provide an easy way to request removal of imagery. Most imagery requests are processed within hours."

The spokesman added: "We take privacy very seriously, and we were careful to ensure that all images in our Street View service abide by UK law."


Source...

[Drew Wilson]

"404 - Villagers not found!"

or

"Villagers was removed due to a violation of the website policy."

Take your pick. ;)

[1cooldude]

That shouldn't happen because I can still access it without a problem. Ok try this and if it still does not work then copy/paste the title of the article into Google. There are a number of sources of the article.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/03/google.anger/index.html?iref=hpmostpop

[mountain_rage]

Wonder how they deal with hmmm i duno, criminals that drive by to scope out properties. If anyone can view it its not private and any expectation under those circumstances is null and void. Either way he did not need to make a fuss, they remove images upon request.

[Drew Wilson]

That shouldn't happen because I can still access it without a problem. Ok try this and if it still does not work then copy/paste the title of the article into Google. There are a number of sources of the article.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/03/google.anger/index.html?iref=hpmostpop

The link works fine, I was just making a funny.

[1cooldude]

A case of neighbourhood watch on a grand scale..I guess.

[Potato]

Maybe they should just invent an invisibility shield and live behind that.

[1cooldude]

@ Drew; I'm a little slow this early in the morning.:dead:

[mountain_rage]

Maybe they should just invent an invisibility shield and live behind that.

Just so long as it also blocks out sound waves, don't want no invisible shut in yelling at me to stop listening in on their private matters.

[carpefile]

Just so long as it also blocks out sound waves, don't want no invisible shut in yelling at me to stop listening in on their private matters.

Hey I want one of those. Can you throw in a force field as well?:umbrella: