Street view and privacy

We’ve already had the objections from people caught on camera coming out of a sex shop or up to  other activities they’d rather not be seen doing. The argument to me is simple –  you can’t expect privacy when in public.

And now villagers somewhere in Buckinghamshire have  stopped the Google vehicle from coming down their road.  They claim that they should have consented to have their houses photographed and that the photos could be used to plan burglaries.

Now I have no experience of burglary, however if I were planning  house breaking I’d probably go and look around properly in person. I might make use of Google’s satellite images, or Microsoft’s Virtual Earth “Bird’s Eye” to look into their back gardens and other areas not visible from the street to plan my entry and escape. 

Virtual Earth view

I’m looking forward to the arrival of the Streetview cameras to my street which I guess will happen over the coming year or so. Other than making sure the front lawn is kept tidy, I don’t think that I, or my neighbours, have much to fear.