Google street view has gone live!!!

I see a small 'streetview' thumbnail showing both cars on my driveway, but it doesn't open up, wierd that is shows my driveway as first picture :eek:

Whats the legality of all this surely they can't put pic's of say my house and drive up there, if I don't want them can they?


Cheers
SARGE
 
There's a whole sub-culture on the internet now of people who scour the likes of Google Earth and Google Street looking for "Dodgy" stuff like topless people and what not!
 
ULP said:
Despite trying google, I can't actually find any way of searching for roads - I just get the google map instead.

Privicy is dead - I'm going to have a look around and see if there is anyone picking their nose, scratching their nuts or in next-doors bed...
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eh? You just go to http://maps.google.co.uk

Type in your postcode or street name and voila there you are.

[Then you can search for fish and chip shops you name it via google. That is why I have google maps even on my phone. You can search for anything on it.]

Now once you have your house on the normal "flat" map you look at the little man top left. If he is orange you can drag him from there to any place on the map you want to see the streetview of. If he is grey your area has not been done yet.

Easy peasy...
 
Sarge786 said:
Whats the legality of all this surely they can't put pic's of say my house and drive up there, if I don't want them can they?
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Perfectly legal to take and publish pictures of anything in the UK, provided it's taken from public land and the subject isn't covered by the offical secrets act (and a coupld of other caveats). You don't own the light that is reflected off you or your posessions.
 
however, personally identifiable details should be sufficiently masked, such as faces and number plates on cars. Google has actually got some technology to automatically blur out these, but it is hit and miss at the moment. I can see alot of cars with blured number plates, but my car, sitting in my driveway has totally unmarked number plate. While it is great (streetview works on the iPhone as well), it is perfect material for identity thieft ; address and car registration all in one place!

BTW, it is www.streetviewfun.com for those looking for funny finds :)
 
agent006 said:
Perfectly legal to take and publish pictures of anything in the UK, provided it's taken from public land and the subject isn't covered by the offical secrets act (and a coupld of other caveats). You don't own the light that is reflected off you or your posessions.
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Better get it covered by the official secrets act then, got to protect my A2 ... lol. One of my cars plates are part visible, other one isn't, yet there is a van which is used by the water company while they were laying new water pipes undergruond who's plate is clearly visible. Why the differences?

SARGE
 
Yes I'm rather concerned about the privacy/identity theft issue with this too, as well as other criminal activity made significantly easier by this technology like old fashioned burglary.

Can you actually ask Google to remove stuff if you don't like what they've shot?
 
There is a photo of my house on StreetView, which was clearly taken last summer. Unfortunately the photo has been completely ruined by the sight of my mother-in-law and sister-in-law coming out of my front door! I can't get away from them anywhere...
 
dan_b said:
Yes I'm rather concerned about the privacy/identity theft issue with this too, as well as other criminal activity made significantly easier by this technology like old fashioned burglary.

Can you actually ask Google to remove stuff if you don't like what they've shot?
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Yes, I've just done that. There is a 'report a concern' link on the bottom left side of the page which you can further select what kind of concern you have and type a description. I've asked them to blur my number plate :). I think their auto-blur technology still has room to improved, other than that, I really like it!
 
There's a young couple having a kiss on Upper Brook Street in Manchester if anyone cares to look. Not worked out how to link to scenes yet.

Cheers

Mike
 
Skipton01 said:
There's a young couple having a kiss on Upper Brook Street in Manchester if anyone cares to look. Not worked out how to link to scenes yet.

Cheers

Mike
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for some reason, it is not working in my windows firefox at work. But IE is fine, as is Safari on my mac. Anyhow, there is a 'Link' button at the top right. The link even includes perspective and zoom level!
 
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