[CCIP]

Well, I am slightly playing devil's advocate here - and I totally agree that google has crossed the creepy line in their discourse many a time - but I'm personally rather concerned at the disappearance of the notion of common or public space. Frankly, it's really not kids accidentally seeing lewd acts that worries me, nor one's right to be protected from being seen in flagrante. What worries me is the idea of a free society without common space that anyone has the right to access and view.

Look at it this way, Google Street View isn't really anything other than another means of transport, even a virtual one. Like any means of transport, it can be used to get around for all sorts of purposes. By the same token, people in ages past were worried about the fact that cars let strangers drive into their neighbourhood from far away places, or that planes could fly right over the property and nothing could be done to stop them. Imagine what some arrogant jerk on his airplane could watch you doing behind the fence! But stopping them would be a very stupid idea, and terrifically bad for commerce, so public roads and public airways were made into safe common space. And here comes another means of transport. IMHO, it's no worse than any previous one, and is already quite important to some means of commerce. It has every right to use common space, like the others.

tl;dr version: You don't own the public streets or airspace around your house and property, and it makes no sense at all that you should have a say in whether or not the public can navigate through it, through whatever means they choose.