Tech Talk

If you see a car like the one above snooping around your neighborhood, and you realized that the at the of the pole attached to it is actually a camera, and it’s taking pictures of everything it sees – including your house… how would you feel?

If you said, uncomfortable, then I guess you must have felt what the residents of Buckinghamshire felt that caused them to challenge the Google camera.

That car in the picture above is the Google Street View Car, which tries to get pictures of villages as it passes by. Seeing this passing in front of his house, resident Paul Jacobs felt that Google may have taken too much liberty in doing what it wills.

Jacobs felt that Google has gotten too nosy, driving too close to his home and taking pictures.

Google, however, believes that it observed UK law and only filmed from public areas and that it has consulted various police forces and provided the means for residents to have their home removed from the service.

The Street View mapping project allows for 360-degree views of roads and homes using footage taken by a camera mounted on a car. This would in turn be featured in the Google Map and Google Earth.

But residents of Buckinghamshire town, aren’t about to take it sitting down, they blocked the driver of the Google Street View car when he started taking photographs of their homes. They see it as an invasion of their privacy and may in fact be a cause in promoting crime.

Google may have been able to impose its will and throw its weight on the internet, unfortunately, it can’t do so… and it shouldn’t do so, in the real world.

As powerful as Google is, it is still subject to observe certain rules and courtesies, specially in the real world.