Angry residents of a Buckinghamshire village blocked the driver of a Google Street View car who was filming the neighbourhood, saying they feared he would encourage burglaries, a report said Friday. One resident, Paul Jacobs, told the BBC that he had alerted his neighbours after spotting the car from his window in Broughton in southern England on Wednesday.
“I don’t have a problem with Google wanting to promote villages. What I have a problem with is the invasion of privacy, taking pictures directly into the home,” Jacobs said. After his call, a police car arrived in Broughton to reports of a dispute between a crowd of people and a Google Street View contractor
“They felt his presence was an intrusion of their privacy. When police arrived at the scene, the car had moved on,” explained a spokeswoman for Thames Valley Police. The Google Street View project, set up last month in Britain, aims to provide detailed 360-degree views online of streets all over the country.
The project has already been strongly criticised by associations like Privacy International, a pressure group which has launched legal action against the IT company.
Luddites the lot of em
hmhm…dunno about privacy
i love the piccie though! it´s from a scene from the life of Brian monthy pyton flying circus if i´m correct?
They thoguht it was the TV licensing van and got scared, I bet
Imagine if future locations of the van were published – what would you be doing when the van went passed?
Oh man. What WOULDN’T I be doing as the van went past?
I believe it’s actually The Holy Grail. They\’re all screaming “Witch!” etc.
And the Earth is shaped like a banana.
How about the “How many times can you appear on Street View?” game? Run around the streets where they are filming and strike a nonchalent pose each time the van passes. My Dad is on twice. I hasten to add that he wasn’t actually playing the game.
This is a local village for local people. Begone with those machines that capture our souls!
What I find is hilarious is that they are against google taking photos of their house and putting it on the internet but they have no problems having an interview with the BBC with their house in the background for all to see, whats the difference exactly?
Also, if people do not want their houses to be on on streetview then they can contact google and have them removed.
People should just grow up and stop moaning over nothing. I could stand outside of their house and take photos of it and pictures from my car if I wanted and no one could stop my, theres no difference.
And furthermore, burgulars 9 times out of 10 dont do go on a recon before they burgle a place, they just turn up with a brick and look for a window to smash.
Wouldn’t want to be visible in it either ..
Not that there is a chance on that happening here .. I may hope …
Jamie: Burglars prefer not to run into residents, so I would think they do some recon, to figure out when people are away or asleep. Of course, they could just ring the doorbell to try, but I don’t think they smash the first window they see without any ‘safety measures’.
I would love for them to drive past my house as I pretend to be left for dead on the front law with fake blood and all.
Or maybe an image of me chasing some man out of my house with no pants on as my pretend wife stands in the doorway in a bath robe.
How about a flying saucer on the front lawn…
The options are endless.
I just do not get why people have such an issue with Google Street view – how exactly is it different to people walking along a street and looking at stuff… Infact it’s even less intrusive because it doesn’t show you what’s happening at the time – just one moment in the past… It’s as if these people imagine that they are now under constant surveillance (which they probably are via cctv etc, but that’s not the point… ). and i’m glad i’m not the only one who found it rather amusing that they didn’t want google, but were perfectly happy for reporters to come in and take pictures as they wished…
I would go as far as to say that I was rather disappointed to discovered that the one which drove past me in cambridge wasn’t the picture used when it went live…
hohum… no pleasing everyone…
The google car has been round our way…I was jumping up and own infront of it!
Oh no! You’ll be able to see exactly what you’d be able to see if you just walked down the street! We must stop this!
Any burglar worth their salt would do a recce first anyhow. I’m rather more concerned about the effect it has on insurance premiums. I live in Toxteth Liverpool, one of the burglary and vandalism capitals of the UK. You only have to step outside the front door to see all kinds of graffiti, fly tipping and boarded up windows. Most kids round here come from broken homes, due to the fact they broke them themselves with baseball bats and sledgehammers!
That said, Toxteth has a reputation that preceeds it, so whether google earth can make that reputation any worse is a moot point!
“What also floats in water?” Don’t you just love Sir Bedivere.
stark comparison to: http://www.streetwithaview.com