Gang of villagers chase away Google car

[Onkel Neal]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe...ger/index.html

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.

Build a fence!

[Dowly]

ROFL!

[SteamWake]

Yea saw this yesterday.. Cant blame em

Good on 'em.

[August]

I don't see what the problem is with it. All they can see is what anyone can see for themselves if they drive down the same street.

[Jimbuna]

LOL

[Enigma]

Faux outrage is rampant these days....

[UnderseaLcpl]

I agree with August. Firstly, the "recon" provided to potential burglars would be all but useless. The vast majority of criminals don't have the luxury of internet access, nor the brains to properly utilize any data they might glean from it, or single pictures taken in the middle of the day. That's why they are criminals. They are too dumb to do anything else.
A primary rule of tactical reconnaisance is to carefully monitor the area of operations as discreetly as possible over a sustained period, in order to establish patterns. What good would a single picture do that a criminal couldn't easily accomplish by themsleves in a more effective manner?

Secondly, the Government does this crap all the time, on a much larger scale, and it generates a startling lack of concern. If these peoples' concern is privacy, they are misdirecting their attention. Have any of you ever spied on a topless lady via sattelite? Neither have I, but I have had access to sattelite surveillance with that capability, not to mention Millimeter-wave imaging (sees through clothing and some structural materials), Infrared (sees through damn near everything), and some other interesting information-gathering systems that I will not discuss.

In any case, which is more of a threat? Which is more perturbatory? A private company using camera data to provide a helpful and accessible navigation data, or a (admittedly part-time/half-mature) government employee like myself with too much time on his hands, with access to state-of-the-art communications and monitoring equipment? And God forbid that we ever actually decide we have something to look for.....

[AVGWarhawk]

My kids have seen this car going by our house. My house is in a 3D drive by. I can see why they might object. It can give one the layout and make it easy to case a place for robbery.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

The vast majority of criminals don't have the luxury of internet access, nor the brains to properly utilize any data they might glean from it, or single pictures taken in the middle of the day. That's why they are criminals. .....

Yea... sure... riiiiight.

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

I agree with August. Firstly, the "recon" provided to potential burglars would be all but useless. The vast majority of criminals don't have the luxury of internet access, nor the brains to properly utilize any data they might glean from it, or single pictures taken in the middle of the day. That's why they are criminals. They are too dumb to do anything else.

I wish you were right......

[Aramike]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

I wish you were right......

He is. The vast majority of criminals are not sophisticated in the least. While there are indeed some very bright ones out there, most are not.

Who do you think is packing prison systems worldwide? The smart ones?

[Linton]

It is the burglars in suits I am more worried about looking at my home.Oh Mr.Linton you have a nice house,we are going to double your council tax to pay for our index linked pension.They will be able to do this from the comfort of their office!

[AVGWarhawk]

There are blue collar criminals who are your street thugs and strong arm people. Armed robbery, etc. Then there are white collar criminals that score big at homes such as these being put on video or crimes involving money laundering, Madoff/Ponsi schemes,etc. The white collar criminal could use these to case a very expensive home full of expensive things.

[August]

Originally Posted by Linton

It is the burglars in suits I am more worried about looking at my home.Oh Mr.Linton you have a nice house,we are going to double your council tax to pay for our index linked pension.They will be able to do this from the comfort of their office!

They don't need to rely on Google maps for that. Don't know how it is in Britain but here in the states the local tax office not only has pictures of every house and property in their jurisdiction but also a complete description as well.

For example. Below is the Providence tax assessors database record of my last apartment. This info is available to anyone with an internet connection.

http://providence.ias-clt.com/parcel...l.php?id=24657

Now how is what google does any more intrusive than that?