Hah!
Watching the watchers! Good on yers!
Not that I've a problem with these particular snapshooters. What else should El Reg be tracking? CCTV? ANPR cameras...?
El Reg nails Street View spycars to Google Maps
Well, we at El Reg have decided we've had quite enough of Google's Orwellian Street View fleet - coming over here, invading our privacy, burning our petrol, and so forth - so we decided to nail the blighters to the search monolith's own Google Maps. Yup, it's uninhibited Web 0.2, and no messing: View the Map (opens in a new …
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Tuesday 15th July 2008 14:51 GMT Anonymous Coward
New sport
Rather than have people bleating about privacy and not wanting to appear in Street View, how long'll it be before some nutters turn it into a sport (after picking a highly distinctive outfit) to appear in as many pictures as possible?
Or else, some tw*ts will use a household brand of auction site to sell their services (?!?!) holding adverts up everytime they're passed by a Google SV car.
Maybe this will keep the ne'er-do-wells off the can't-sing / can't-act / can't-integrate-into-society sort of crap TV we've suffered for way too many years.......
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Tuesday 15th July 2008 14:51 GMT c price
A title is required.
Black cars, black helicopters, they are all the same.
Here's a competion suggestion - a stack of El Reg goodies to the first person to find a picture of themselves taking a picture of the google spy cars on street view? (Something to do whilst looking for bulgarian airbag snaps anyway.....)
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Tuesday 15th July 2008 14:55 GMT Mark Casey
Spotted in Leeds
I spotted one of the cars today in Leeds, it was driving past the big NHS building. It didn't appear to be taking any pictures though as the camera was covered up and the big pole thing was lowered.
It was identical to this: http://regmedia.co.uk/2008/07/11/brum_spycar_2.jpg
Except as mentioned the camera bit was lower.
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Tuesday 15th July 2008 15:01 GMT Andy Gibson
Black is the new white!
"Do you think they chose black cars so they wouldn't stand out?"
Perhaps they figured white cars with the Google logo sprawled across them was a little too high profile so they went with the very stealth black paint and technological gubbins covered with a bin liner instead. :)
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Tuesday 15th July 2008 15:29 GMT Anonymous Coward
Is that a bin bag?
In that case, WTF are these cars for?
Clearly they're working on some sort of non-visible wavelength that'll cause cancer and kill our kids. It's called "TerrorHurts" radiation for a reason, people! And it's radiation so it's evil!
Skull and crossbow because someone will die if these rotters aren't left unchecked. Think of the children!
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Tuesday 15th July 2008 17:42 GMT Joey Y
@Chris Harden
That is what I love about Google is that you can use their tools on them. Had it been the government (especially here in the freedom-hating USA) with cars/cameras, you would have at least gotten added to the Terrorist Watch List just for noting where the cameracars were.
In fact, I bet Google is aware of the fact that people are tracking its cars. I think it would be interesting if, for example, they were to add GPS devices in the cars and have a real-time/frequently updated map showing their locations. (Even better, being able to track a car in your area and seeing the picture feed to make sure your thong/swimming pool does not appear.)
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Tuesday 15th July 2008 18:24 GMT brainwrong
Wikimapia
Am I the only person who thinks google maps is a bit shit? It's slow, it's sqished into a corner of the screen, keeps crashing, and your inclusion of it in your web page means the 'back' button doesn't work.
Wikimapia on firefox (the only thing firefox is good for) is the dogs bollocks. It's fast, fills the whole browser window, and has information about places.
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Wednesday 16th July 2008 00:32 GMT Tom Scrace
This seems like a contradiction
Am I the only one who sees an inconsistency in El Reg's positions here? One day you are railing against restrictions on public photography, and the next you are complaining that somebody is taking public photographs. One does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy when out in public. I fail to see the harm that could result from this service.
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Wednesday 16th July 2008 07:48 GMT Flocke Kroes
They are black because ...
... no-one has yet paid the advertising costs.
Promise to pay them a dollar each time Google says someone saw the camcar, and they will paint a vulture on the side. Google will track the number of people who saw the advert with subliminal images that hypnotise pedestrians into texting 'I saw the vulture car' to Google.
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Wednesday 16th July 2008 08:29 GMT Adam Foxton
@brainwrong
What browser are you using to use Google Maps? I use Firefox and I've got it so that the entire area of the window that shows webpages (probably 2/3, 3/4 of the screen) is covered. Hardly squashed into a corner. Sounds like the browser you're using isn't as good as the apparently pretty useless Firefox...
You can get rid of the sidebar using the small "collapse sidebar" arrow, widening 'maps out to the whole screen-width.
Google maps is great. Not quite as awesome as Google Earth with its terrain mapping and vast quantities of other data, but still great!
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Wednesday 16th July 2008 10:01 GMT Alan Fisher
Greedy people
It's just mad American people (mainly; not all American people are mad, i'm married to one but whether that means she IS mad or not I can't say..) who are feeling left out at not having anything to sue somebody for........I do think all this privacy stuff is hilarious...I agree with the guy who mentioned appearing in loud outfits across the world in Streetview...it's be called GoogleSpoogle or GoogleFroodle something like that....(oh, before that catches on, I'll mail myself a printout in triplicate so I can sue anyone who uses that without askin me first lol)...I'd spend ages looking for me or someone I know for my amusement when I'm bored
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Wednesday 16th July 2008 10:01 GMT multipharious
They are sure taking a long time to upload!
I saw one of them here in Munich (gawked really since I knew what it was), and I am eager to see my blurred face and moronic expression of, "Hey that is..."
Looks like Google is going to have a little bit of a privacy issue here though. And likely a bit of a fight.
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Wednesday 16th July 2008 16:42 GMT Stevie
Fools!
Can't you tell the difference between a relatively harmless camera array and a psychotronic mind-control transmitter?
The CIA are nothing compared to the Google Applied Psychotronics laboratory. For years G.A.P. labs have hidden their secret research facilities in plain site, disguised as yuppie clothing stores. Now they have become even more blatent in their quest for world domination.
I need more foil. We ALL need more foil.
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Thursday 17th July 2008 22:45 GMT Matt Crerar
spotted but no pic
Saw the black car that has been spotted already in Glasgow and elsewhere in Scotland on Cumbernauld Road in eastend ay 14:45. Was just past the junction next to Duke Street train station. Drove right past it so couldn't take a pic I'm afraid. This is sort of spooky isn't it?
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cumbernauld+road&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=11.406319,27.246094&ie=UTF8&ll=55.857925,-4.213858&spn=0.010574,0.026608&z=15
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Friday 18th July 2008 00:07 GMT Dave
Unlike the Daily Mail
I don't have a problem with this. It sure as hell gives me a metaphorical stick to beat PCSO numpties over the head when I want to do some street photography.
I'm waiting patiently for them to go down my street so I can go goatse on 'em
(Google THAT one! Daily mail)
Paris? Well from that angle......
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Monday 21st July 2008 12:43 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Taking photos in public...
Surely you can see the difference between a member of the public taking half a dozen photos for there own private use and Google taking millions of photos and publishing them worldwide for commercial gain?
It's not the taking of the photos that worries me - it's what they do with them afterwards.
This topic is closed for new posts.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
