As fun as it is to use Google Earth and look at their Street View setting, people are getting fed up with the Google intrusion. According to a Times Online news report, a group of residents in a small village in Britain formed a small mob to resist the Google rv vehicle.
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.”
He then ran round the village knocking on doors to rouse fellow residents. While the police were called, the villagers stood in the road, not allowing the car to pass. The driver eventually did a U-turn and left.
Mr Jacobs said: “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 Street View, which was introduced in Britain last month, gives 360-degree views of the biggest cities, allowing people to take virtual tours from their computers or mobile phones. The company’s camera-equipped cars, which take the photographs for Street View, aim to cover as much of Britain as possible.
I give those villagers a lot of credit! They were defending their property and their privacy. I say: more power to them!
I’ve not seen any Google mobile in my area, but I have seen my area suddenly pop up on the street view setting on Google Earth. :-p
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Thus far our house is not on google earth, thanks to being in a very rural area. But they’ve done a lot of back roads in the area, and I’m sure they’ll get to us before they’re done.
What a handy little tool for the government.
I actually had to email google about taking the spot they took off in my neighborhood because I did not like the fact that people could see my car in the driveway because it is so distinguishable and I know for a fact no one in the town has another one like it. They immediately removed it thankfully.
I am glad they have not found my area yet – very rural area. I notice that the image on google earth for my area has to be over five years old – there is a new set of roads and a grocery store that was built on the outskirts of town about five years ago – they are still showing the old imagery. Big Brother will soon be watching….
As cool as technology has become, it is still scary how much our privacy can be invaded. Kudos for those people!
Great comments. I see that most of is feel the same way– this can be a powerful tool for crooks and governments (or government crooks). And while it is a neat tool, the ability for abuse is too overwhelming. I’d rather not have a cool toy and retain my and others’ privacy and safety.