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Why I don’t want Google up my street
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
If you spotted a bloke from down the street videoing the outside of your house, you would at the very least feel vaguely uncomfortable about it. Wouldn’t you? If the Government was doing it you’d be up in arms.
But when Google Street View, a commercial outfit, not only videos our houses but posts the multi-angled views on the internet the consensus seems to be, “Ah well, there you go, not a lot we can do about it...”
Actually there is. As the residents of a village in England decided once they saw the Google car with its snooping camera come cruising down their street.
They formed a human barrier and refused to let it pass.
Are these people Luddites standing in the way of progress? Or just sensible residents taking a stand against totally unwarranted — and potentially dangerous — invasion of privacy?
Me, I’m with the latter interpretation.
The villagers who rebuffed the Google car have made the very valid point that posting pictures of houses on the net has to be a burglar’s dream.
Here in Northern Ireland though it’s not just the burglars we have to worry about. The security implications of Street View are seismic. Or, if you prefer, dissident.
But does that stop Google?
Why isn’t there more of a furore about Street View?
Is it because people don’t want to appear anti-progressive by criticising the cyber-celeb that is Google? The internet’s the future, innit?
Actually Street View is a commercial venture that’s all about turning a profit. And of course you can ask to have the photograph of your house removed from the site once it’s up there.
But here’s the problem. Very many of the people whose homes are on Street View won’t be able to request this because they have no access to, or familiarity with, the internet.
Some might argue that since the pictures were taken in some cases months ago, they’re hardly going to be much use to a burglar.
But it wouldn’t take a great criminal mind to use those images to sort out which houses might be most vulnerable to, say, a nocturnal visitation.
As for the security implications — again you don’t have to be Sherlock to see the potential there.
That’s not to say Street View won’t have valid uses. As Google itself says, if you’re looking for a particular restaurant on, say, the Lisburn Road, it would be a help.
Why you’d need it to peruse No 15 Backstreet Cul de Sac is a different matter entirely. Unless you were scouting for customers for the likes of double glazing sales.
But is this good enough reason though to ride roughshod over the people’s right to privacy?
We’re already snooped upon, monitored, watched and filmed enough by the data compilation and CCTV wings of government.
Why do we allow a business — even an internet business — to invade our privacy further still?
And where, if ever, do we call a halt to cyber snooping?
- Text Size
It is an infringement of our privacy, and nowhere will be safe any more, coucils will be able to increase coucil tax with very little effort. As suggested.
If I wanted to be seen I would try out for Big Brother!
Posted by D Thorne | 18.09.09, 12:12 GMT
help!!!!! how do i have my house photograph removed, cannot find it on the web, does anyone have a phone number????
Posted by dennis ward | 26.05.09, 11:31 GMT
Och get over yourself. So now the outside of your house is private? The view from a public road is private? Since when? Ever needed to use a google map and get a look at the street view so you know where to go when you get there? Probably not, you'd need to get out more to be doing such things.
Posted by Watcher | 17.04.09, 23:54 GMT
As the Bard says--"Much Ado about nothing"
For dear sakes Lindy, you are slipping .
What, on earth, is wrong with the Google view of our streets.
My brother, who lives in Cornwall, enjoys seeing images of his previous life in Belfast.
In our street, for examople, there is an image of a man cleaning windows. Does Lindy suggest he is an innocent homeowner, or perhaps someone who is "doing the double"whose image will be magnified and studied by an army of DHSS investigators.. You couldn't make it up.
These Google views will be around fpr 30 years, long after our phantom window cleaner has hung up his chamois.
Posted by Trevor | 12.04.09, 21:20 GMT
Another dreary Flat Earther... how boring and pathetic can you get?
I love being on Google Street view. There was nothing better than being able to show my elderly mother the very street her brother lives on in Ohio - something she would never have been able to otherwise experience.
Lindy go down to the beach and try pushing the tide back.
Posted by Plannisaurus Rex | 11.04.09, 22:33 GMT
get google to record the ip address of people who look at houses.then if a burglery takes place they can track down the burgler easily.
Posted by johnsmith | 11.04.09, 11:51 GMT
All I know is that sitting here in Canada I can visit the streets of Belfast and have a walk down memory lane.
Can't believe how it's changed!!
Posted by Sharon | 10.04.09, 22:21 GMT
Very short sighted linda. Although I don't relish the idea that people can look at my house online I understand that street view is one of the most important inventions in the last 10 years. A minor invasion of privacy is a tiny price to pay to be able to see (eventually) anywhere in the world. I am today able to see l'aquila as it was before the earthquake when otherwise it would have been lost forever. In a thousand years from now people will be able to walk the streets of present day Belfast- a historical record like none before. A historian and travelers dream come true. I can see the streets of Florence at no cost and read up about every sight. We live in a golden age that things like this are possible.
Posted by Jack Cade` | 10.04.09, 11:34 GMT
Of course you have a right to privacy, and to live in fear that everyone is watching you and wants something from you but thankfully you don't own the street.
Posted by paul | 09.04.09, 11:16 GMT
Load of rubbish. Linda,
If someone wnated to scout your house for a robbery they would visit it! Google Earth will make no material difference whatsoever! Do you have any stats to back up such a spurious claim? No offcourse not, it is all opinion designed to enrange the conservaprats of this fine land, for that sells papers! ehh!
The images used represent one point in time and they are not updated on a regular basis, which means they are already out of date. Only a fool would base a crime on such information and would most likely be caught for doing so!
These arguments with no grounding are really starting to grind me down. Why not devote your paper inches to something worthwhile?
Posted by M S | 09.04.09, 10:29 GMT
I suppose you were burning witches at the stake back in your day Lindy ?
Any tom dick or harry can walk down your street and see the exact same thing! , it allows you to virtually walk around belfast whats the problem with that? it's a great step forward in allowing virtual tourists to see a city before they actually go and is a great way of familiarising yourself with the area.
If your house is insecure it's insecure it won't make any difference to mr burglar who would prefer to drive past and see an up to date picture of your house and see when your in and out ,not one 6 months to a year old and static!!.
Wise up Lindy get with the times a whole pile of scaremongering over nothing!.
Posted by Philip | 09.04.09, 09:52 GMT
What legal reason do you have for asking Google Street View to be discontinued. If I am on public property I have every right to take a picture and upload it to my personal website. I'll even remove it if you don't like people seeing your poorly maintained garden, or for any other reason you have. So why should we treat Google any differently?
Just because you disagree with something doesn't mean you have any grounds to call for it to be discontinued. Voice your opinion yes, suggest public vigilante action no. A terrorist, that is what you are suggesting although you shy from the word, does not need to sit in his home to view public areas.
Posted by Michael | 08.04.09, 16:11 GMT
Streets are public places, anyone can walk along them, paint a picture, take a photograph, remember what they saw. Ordinance Survey maps the street, mobile phone companies know pretty well exactly where you are on the street in real time....so why the outrage against Google. Invasion of privacy exactly that...poking into my private affairs, behind my closed doors, beyond my walls and fences but Google simply records a snapshot of the public face of a street, seen by an available to anyone who passes along it. It makes it easier to find directions and understand the character of the street. Protest against invasion of privacy, yes, but not against this. Wrong target.
Posted by Richard | 08.04.09, 15:26 GMT
Oh catch a grip, these are pictures taken from public areas, anyone with a camera could do this and post them on any number of social networking sites and no-one woul dbat an eyelid!
Posted by RB | 08.04.09, 13:58 GMT
What privacy is endangered here? Are the various newspaper reports about Google Streetview actual concerns or jealousy that Google is taking away press advertising revenue?
A couple of facts to consider:
1. the English villagers that stopped the Street View car did so because they said there had been a number of burglaries there in the previous few weeks.
That would be BEFORE Google put them online. Burglars dont need Streetview, walking past is enough.
2. No.15 Backstreet cul-de-sac wont be included because it photographs main public roads only.
3. Google turns a tidy profit, but Street View doesnt have advertising on it and may never do.
It has been online for parts of the USA and Europe for over a year and they havent succumbed to a burglary and terrorism epidemic yet. Its very useful for visitors & tourists especially.
Maybe you would prefer if NI was blanked out with an on-screen message 'If you are going to visit Belfast, remember to wind your watch back 30 years'.
Posted by JokerNJ | 08.04.09, 13:57 GMT