EU rattles sabre at Street View

The head of EU data protection agencies has told Google it must warn people of the impending arrival of its Orwellian Street View spymobiles. According to AP, Alex Turk has written to Google's data privacy chief Peter Fleischer insisting that it "should always give advance notice on its website and in the local or national …

[Anonymous Coward]

FO Google

Big brother is watching you from above and now will log your home too. Lets not forget that this is an American company with a dubious past record (China) .In my opinion its nothing more than a snoopers aid. How long before they will ask to see the inside of your home?

I'd like to know when they plan to do my street, so I can have a nice message in my window for them.

[Boring Bob]

Right on EU

This answers exactly my issue with Streetview. A year ago I got an email from a cousin telling me he could see my house on Street view. Google had bloody well come down my street without any warning and taken a photo of my house and put it the internet for all those who are interested in peeping at my house (i.e. extended family)!

The drive was a mess with weeds pushing through the cracks in the pavement and the rose bushes REALLY needed pruning. If Google had warned me they were coming I would have tided the place up a bit. What is really needed is a law whereby I can insist Google come back and take a new photo after I have had a chance to give the fence a new lick of paint.

[Colin Barfoot]

cruft

No, what you need is a Googlerithm which takes the images of your grubby abode and processes it into a spotless palace.

So come on Google bods, if you're all so bloody clever let's have the Google HedgeClipper.

And while you're at it. Instead of those blurry heads how about some smiley faces? As Sapphire & Steel demonstrated faceless people induce nightmares.

[Stacy]

Oh useful...

Just took a look at the Netherlands on the spy page. It's really useful. It says they are currently everywhere (lists just about every single province in the country, without being specific about where in the provinces they are operating).

[Anonymous Coward]

Prior notification of the spyfleet

Ooh I can see this ending well

[Anonymous Coward]

Should give me plenty of time

to prepare some placards, large prints of goatse and other stunts to keep those folks who spend their days looking for weird stuff on Streetview occupied

[Anonymous Coward]

"of a sensitive nature and those containing intimate details not normally observable by a passer-by"

What the damned hell do these people consider to be not normally observable by a passer by? Google are only going along the public roads...If google can see it then so can anyone else...Worried about the height of the camera...then worry about people sat on national express coaches.

Boring Bob....Although I don't know you I can go down your road and look at your house any time I want. The fact that your mate saw it means that...funnily enough... your mate knows where you live but no one who doesn't already have that information can find you specifically. All they can do is have a look around at an old picture of your house...from the front...Not the usual means of entry for a thief as they prefer the back passage (ooh err) and if you have your HD TV, Fabergé egg and Ferrari in full view of the camera car then you've also got it in full view of the rest of the world and your are a fool if that's true.

[petur]

following this insane EU logic...

we will soon have laws that make it forbidden to take pictures on the street and put them on a public album or site. *sigh*

I honestly don't see what the issue is, I find the service useful and you only see what people on the street see.

Bing (Microsoft) has aerial snaps with very high detail available for several places (including my city) - I find those are the REAL privacy invasion as it shows stuff you can't see from the street.

Seems Google is the main target for everybody, the real evil has already been forgotten :/

[Anonymous Coward]

THIS.

Exactly. If you don't want it on show, don't put it on show it for everyone to see from the street.

Surly that's common sense?

Otherwise its time for the government to insist on blinkers to be worn at all times when you're out and about...

[Peter H. Coffin]

Not doing enough!

Perhaps they could fit the cars with sirens and flashy lights as well. I suppose if they provide precise enough notice and enough noise, the only people photographed will be the ones that WANT to be and they can stop bothering with the blurring...

[Rumcajz]

Manufactured entertainment..

So Google "should always give advance notice on its website and in the local or national press before it takes pictures".

However, Google should also avoid pictures "of a sensitive nature and those containing intimate details not normally observable by a passer-by"

When you cross these two directives and take into account the 'playful' nature of todays geeks and the propensity for showing everything on facebook, you get a bizarre and even surreal microcosmic view of some areas. Case in point:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/10/street_view_frogmen/

Given a few minutes warning, how many of you would flash or moon the camera? Wear a ski-mask or put on swimming trunks? Paint the kids green? With a couple of hour's warning, just think what goodies people will think up for a chance at net-fame. And, by making it more entertaining to surf and find funny stuff, Google gains market share and sells more ads.

Kind of a open-source street-theater snapshot mechanism... Q.E.D. Tux...

[Andraž 'ruskie' Levstik]

To all the "it's only what's seen from a public road"

No it's not... Their cameras are higher than the average person is tall. So that means they see OVER fences and other such things.

So no it's not what you get to see from the public road... It's what you get to see from a double decker bus while sitting on top.

I don't want my 'lil self seen even blured on streetview...