Be Excellent To Each Other

Angry villagers see off Google.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2357834.ece

Is this actually illegal, then? You'd have thought that it was that it might have come up before.

No. It isn't. But people are all like "yeah, but it'll help burglers know where my house is and plan how to get in" and Google's all like "yeah, whatever. They could do that anyway by walking down the road, you dumb fucks" and they're all like "yeah, but they can plan in advance now thanks to you. When oh when will the BBC realise" and then Google's all like "yeah, well, now we're going to take a photo of your missus pissing behind a car".



Incidentally, what is it with car reg plates being blurred out on Google and elsewhere? We can see them while you're driving around, you know.

I wondered how long it would take Mr Chris to respond to a thread title in his own native language.

Good. No matter how handy it might be, there's no denying that Streetview is fucking intrusive.

I would have thought burglars would use google earth for any planned robberies, since you could plan your entry and escape route and where to put the van if your planning on a big haul.

True. But we're all free to stand outside people's houses and stare at them. Is this really any different?



Or a map.

It's not something that bothers me but I can see how it's a bit different. For a start if you're stood outside someone's house they can see you as well.

You don't think this is any different?

I wonder if there have been any divorces because of Streetview yet?

*waves at markg*

Yes, true. But then if you live somewhere where a lot of people walk past, how does it help you that you can see them?

Gah. I dont know. I'm not much a fan of Streetview on privacy grounds, but then I'm not much a fan of poshos in the South East either, and am all for anything that pisses them off.

All together now:
Hm, I don't think that scans quite right, yet.

Hm, whatever did happen to - was it Ramsea's? - co-worker?

Still, if you're being obvious enough to get caught by a car taking a photo as it drives past, some might say you either want or deserve to get caught. And possibly shouldn't be doing something that your partner would divorce you over in the first place.

A black car with a bizarre camera mast on top is even more visible and notable. Than most people.

There was something in The Suin about it this week, but I think they were just reading BeeX, as also, in the Guardian the other day there was something about removing excess packaging at Tescos checkouts....

I think blaming streetview if you get caught cheating is a bit disingenuous really.

Yes, it's a tough one. Certainly if the lovely Jacqui suggested photographing everyone's property for a Secure Home Office Database (TM) we'd rightly be angry. I think an argument could be made that the difference is that Google only want to make money and that it's up to users to decide what to do with the information (which could be obtained by strolling around town with a camera if you were really bored) but I'm not sure how. Meh. Too complicated for Friday.

A big map. With toy cars on it. And plastic green soldiers.

Ooh, good word.

CCTV effectively means quite a few houses are already filmed live 24/7. I don't agree with that particularly, but like with Google we've really no grounds for complaint before I successfully get the privacy rules changed. As it stands, if I can been seen from a public place I can be photographed (so long as it's the scene I'm in being captured, not me, then there would be calls to the police and possible rugby tackling). Also, I don't care. If I've got my cock out/in someone/something I shouldn't have, it's my own fault if I get seen, whatever the means.

Yeah, but while you may see it when it drives past (if you're in) you won't see the chap casing your house on the internet.

It was years before it dawned on me why the government's cartographers are the Ordnance Survey.

You won't see the chap casing your house from right outside it in a lot of cases, especially where the crims are competent enough to actually pull it off.

There's a reason the vertical blinds in our living room open at certain angles.

Seriously, just call her up and ask her out. I hear she's having marriage difficulties and so may appreciate the, ahem, attention.


Yeah, true. But either way it's still an intrusion. I guess we're all happier with Big Business knowing stuff about us (Tesco, Nectar cards etc) than we are the government. It's odd that we trust rapacious, unaccountable multinationals more than our own elected rulers, who, despite the cynicism, are surely only doing this shit in a misguided attempt to make things better.

It just struck me that the thread title is technically inaccurate (the best sort of inaccurate). Google aren't on your land.

Ultimately, if you're paranoid enough about criminals casing your joint on the internet to moan to the press (and illegally obstruct a public highway), you should be taking better steps to prevent criminals casing your joint full stop. Big hedges, blinds that don't let you see in/anything valuable without being really obvious, visible elements of an alarm system, good doors and windows, that sort of thing.

If I was a burglar, I wouldn't use Street View to case the joint because you don't know how old the photo is, nor can you get that much of an idea what's behind and around the house.

Nothing beats on-site reconnaissance.

Presumably they can't do streetview on private roads, because in that case they would be on your land? I know they haven't done Canary Wharf, which is private property.

I don't regard street view as personal information so the difference between government and business is in the power that they wield and the voluntary nature of transactions with businesses.

Someone on a Yahoo! bicycle just rode past with a polaroid helmet.

Yes. Hm, in which case Grim... could surely solve the problem immediately with a single phone call!

Yeah, I'm totally behind stopping governments/businesses poking their nose into our private lives, but I can't see how one photo taken at some unspecified point in the past of the bit of my house that's visible from the public highway is that big a deal.

At the risk of falling back on the Argument Of Idiots, if privacy is your concern aren't there bigger fish to fry at the moment? What with national databases, ID cards and the increasing prevailance of CCTV?

.., camo gear, nightvision goggles, webbing, and a scoped semi automatic rifle.

Someone tried to break down our rear fence last weekend when we were in London. I reckon they used Street View to see that we had a fence.

Well, the latter isn't true for Streetview. And I was getting at that if the government did a Streetview, as Kern suggested, we'd be much more unhappy with it than we are with Google doing it. Even though the council tax officers, or whoever, could look you up on streetview.

I certainly can't see how Streetview is more intrusive than Google Earth. A view of the front of your property from the public highway versus an aerial view of your back garden?

Thank you, Lord Bernstein.

Ah, but is Google Earth a TOOL FOR PAEDOS?

Would we? I can't think of a single way in which it would make a government more powerful or fundamentally change the relationship between government and citizens. Unlike some of their other proposals.

I think the Sun reading majority would, yes.

"GOVERNMENT SENDS SPYCARS DOWN YOUR ROAD!!11!!!! DRIVEN BY FORRINS!!!1!!!1!!!"


I guess not massively different from the over-use of CCTV, and the fact you are constantly in the Government's sight whenever you step foot out of your house.

Mr Chris, how many other specialist streetview images have you harvested?

Heh. All from The Register, who harvest them for you.

It's pretty massively different from the over-use of CCTV really though, isn't it?

Massively less worse than CCTV I'd say. That reminds me, I thought I was having some kind of Orwellian nightmare the other week. I walked into Blackpool town centre and suddenly and unexpectedly there was this big booming voice "For your safety and security this area is being monitored by CCTV" and then some stuff about hoping I have a pleasant day.

CCTV with Gaydar trigger, whatever next?

Sort of. But not really. I mean, I'd not be bothered, but you can see how the average man on the Clapham omnibus would conflate the two.

Government. Cameras. Looking at you.

Okay, it's not real-time with the streetview, but it'd still be a bit iffy. Why would the government be doing that? Suspicion as to motives would automatically be raised.

I thought when you said we would object in your original post I thought you were meaning "we" as in us, the excellent, right-headed people on here in the same way we might object to the Data Communications Bill or ID cards.

Not really, no. Mind you, thinking about it, I *do* think if, before Google did this, someone posted on here with "the government is going to be sending spycars with cameras down every road in the country" it would raise one or two excellent eyebrows, no? Mine included.

An excellent eyebrow being raised, yesterday:

Was that the property law case about "from the heavens to the centre of the earth"?

How exactly are Google making money from creating Street View, advertising?

They would have to justify the expenditure and my reaction would depend entirely on that justification so that's where this hypothetical discussion gets difficult. I can't think of much of a use for it, after all the government already have the facility to do much better than see a one time snapshot of a particular location, they can just send someone out too see it in real time.

Trespass to land. plane flew over, took an aerial photo.

Yeah, that's the one. It limited (or reaffirmed the limitation of) ownership from the old "from the heavens to the centre of the earth" to only a limited height above your property, or something. So trespass could only occur below a certian height, or something like that.

Yeah. Although i'm espottling myself out right now, so couldn't recall the exact bits of it.

Frankly, Fuck you Lord Scott, you knobfaced wanker, you could have made my life so much easier.