What happens when the google car comes past your house just at the wrong moment....

[crenn]

Click Here (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=eagle+point+drive++Arkansas&sll=48.12748,-122.16623&sspn=0.010656,0.016823&layer=c&ie=UTF8&cbll=34.886369,-92.239196&panoid=SqGxboge__NMt6Fy4liZ0w&cbp=1,88.09949896407926,,0,0.30136005524912673&t=h&ll=34.88737,-92.239172&spn=0.003252,0.004828&z=18)

[Pointy_Stick]

This is the first time I have used this new Google Maps and I am flabbergasted. I just went and visited my relatives house over 400 km away and it was like I was standing right in front of it. Incredible.

I am also scared. Knowing that someone drove around my town, taking photos of the places I know so well and put them on the Internet in something very close to 3D for the world to see on their computer sends chills up my spine.

And if this is the kind of detail Google, a private company, can release on the Internet for free, imagine what the US government has! It doesn't bear thinking about.

PS: How unlucky was that guy! Talk about right place, right time!

[Crimson Sky]

The google car captured my sister taking out the trash. I have mixed feelings about what they're doing. Thier thinking is, anything outside is for the public to see.

[Drum Thumper]

When they get around to capturing the 59084 zip code I'll start getting worried. And I feel sorry for the family who lost their house. I wonder if they're going to press charges against google for mental distress.

[Airbozo]

... imagine what the US government has! It doesn't bear thinking about.
...

The Israeli government is the one to worry about. They have worked with the US for decades on satellite technology and have the best image resolution bird in the sky. (just don't open your mail outside if you don't want anyone to be able to see it... ;) )



The google car captured my sister taking out the trash. I have mixed feelings about what they're doing. Thier thinking is, anything outside is for the public to see.

I have mixed feelings about this too. Google will distort the faces of anyone they capture, but you have to request it. In my case Google drove down a private street and we are in the process of having them remove all images from that drive... BTW: the US supreme court has ruled that anything outside on a public road IS free for anyone to capture and display. This includes your trash. Once it hits the curb, it belongs to everyone.



I wonder if they're going to press charges against google for mental distress.

Then they would have to include any news media that also took pictures and displayed them.

[Pointy_Stick]

If Google has any decency they'll take it down without being threatened legally. BTW, is there some sort of 'report unsuitable photo' function built into Google Maps? I'd check, but it's 1 am here and I need sleep pronto, or I'm :dead:

Quick Edit: But media have freedom of the press.

[Luke122]

LOL

I randomly clicked a house straight south of that one, and got to see all the smoke in the background, coming up from that fire. :D

[crenn]

I have mixed feelings about this too. Google will distort the faces of anyone they capture, but you have to request it. In my case Google drove down a private street and we are in the process of having them remove all images from that drive... BTW: the US supreme court has ruled that anything outside on a public road IS free for anyone to capture and display. This includes your trash. Once it hits the curb, it belongs to everyone.

Google automatically blurs out faces in photos. My own house is on Street View but I don't mind at all.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

All sorts of great stuff to be had here (http://jalopnik.com/tag/google-street-view/):

http://jalopnik.com/assets/images/gallery/12/2008/05/medium_2513160998_5dfeac4673_o.png

(See also this (http://jalopnik.com/391126/google-streetview-now-mapping-boobs).)

The Street View vans haven't made it to my county yet, so I'm not too concerned.

[Short Modder]

Thank goodness they haven't gotten to my area yet. I'm fine with it as long as there aren't any pictures of my family or anything. I actually found both of my uncle's houses. I think its pretty cool. That's just my opinion

Jon

[Computer-Geek]

This is pretty creepy to see my house like this & anyone can view it =/

[nevermind1534]

At one intersection by mt house, they either stopped at a CVS, or cut through their parking lot. It must have been stormy/foggy when they got my house. It looks pretty bad. It looks like it's stormy, and you can't see very far.

[Omega]

I wonder why most people care that their house is visible on google maps.

I dobut anybody would single out your house to try and investigate. That and it's not any worse than it being in the background of a photo or somebody looking it as they cross the street.

[halcyonforever]

As long as it is visible from the street it is public domain, This doesn't remove any privacy, only perhaps a perception of privacy that you thought you had. What is the difference between someone looking up your house photo from the street online, and driving by your house in person... Personally I prefer the online one, because it is static and dated, instead of some one creeping by at that slow neighborhood scope speed. The photos are lacking enough detail to be of any real value to a proper criminal, and may be made irrelevant by recent changes (the street view of my place is almost a year old).

But as far as your picture showing up, if you don't want your photo on the internet, pretty much never leave your house, don't look out any windows facing the street or public easement, never go to the mall... It's a fact of life that people can take pictures of you. Now if they start taking pictures through the window, using your image for profit, or using it in an inappropriate manner, that becomes another issue, but there is a public facet of everyones life.

[Airbozo]

.... Now if they start taking pictures through the window, using your image for profit, or using it in an inappropriate manner, that becomes another issue, but there is a public facet of everyones life.

So, this struck a chord since I had this exact issue come up when dealing with a seriously deranged individual.

Turns out I came home one day to see this uh, gentleman, video taping through my windows as he was standing on the deck outside my house _clearly_ on my property. I called the cops, they came out and took a report and told me there is nothing I can do about it unless I had witnesses that heard me telling him not to come on my property. Then they could only get him for trespassing... I saw this same person videotaping the inside of several of my neighbors houses while he was on their property. The cops were called again and my neighbors were told the same thing. The cops knew this guy and knew he was up to no good but could not touch him. He ended up shooting at my house at 3am in the morning and was even shooting my dogs and bird with a pellet gun.

Long story short: This person has been taken care of and will NEVER bother anyone again.

Moral of the story? You have no expectation of privacy even in your own home.

[moon111]

....Long story short: This person has been taken care of and will NEVER bother anyone again...

So where did you hid the body??

[Luke122]

So where did you hid the body??

Dont ask unless you want to end up with it. ;)

[Airbozo]

Dont ask unless you want to end up with it. ;)

Truth!

Seriously though, Karma has a way of working things out. ;)

The point was though that our "assumed" right to privacy does not exist.

When I can afford it (likely never), I plan on buying a large piece of property and putting my house at the end of a LONG private driveway with lots of trees...

[Luke122]

I hear you on that.. my plan is to buy the largest piece of treed property available, and build my house in the middle. The driveway will make several direction changes on the way up, so that the house cannot be seen from the road, and cannot see the road either. I want silence and anonymity.

[jdbnsn]

I wonder why most people care that their house is visible on google maps.

I dobut anybody would single out your house to try and investigate. That and it's not any worse than it being in the background of a photo or somebody looking it as they cross the street.

Evidently Dick Cheney cares, he had his pad removed from the map.

Ask a celebrity about how tenacious some folks can be when The Inquirer pays BIG money for embarrassing or compromising pics of individuals. How would you like your home, or even a view inside to be on some nimrod's web-videoblog?


So, this struck a chord since I had this exact issue come up when dealing with a seriously deranged individual.

Turns out I came home one day to see this uh, gentleman, video taping through my windows as he was standing on the deck outside my house _clearly_ on my property. I called the cops, they came out and took a report and told me there is nothing I can do about it unless I had witnesses that heard me telling him not to come on my property. Then they could only get him for trespassing... I saw this same person videotaping the inside of several of my neighbors houses while he was on their property. The cops were called again and my neighbors were told the same thing. The cops knew this guy and knew he was up to no good but could not touch him. He ended up shooting at my house at 3am in the morning and was even shooting my dogs and bird with a pellet gun.

Long story short: This person has been taken care of and will NEVER bother anyone again.

Moral of the story? You have no expectation of privacy even in your own home.


Dude, that is messed up! I would flip if I found some freako filming through my windows.

[nevermind1534]

Get a camera and tape it, if nothing else.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Yeah, I'd at least tape them taping you. Then I'd go out and have words with him, no question about it.

[nevermind1534]

But I guess that would be pretty hard to do if you don't have a video camera on hand.

[jdbnsn]

I suppose, but....call me old fashioned. I think that there are few things left in our information generation that are sacred, but for me, having privacy in your own home is one of those things that will never go out. Just because you are innocent of criminal activities, or perhaps don't have an eccentric sense of entertainment (for instance watching The Price is Right in your Sponge Bob underwear while eating Cheetos and picking your nose), doesn't mean that you'd rather not having someone you don't know outside your window filming it. The home is one of those basic tenets of individual freedom and security, whether you live in a fortress, The White House, an igloo, or a bamboo hut in the Amazon, there is a fundamental sense of violation when you have uninvited and unwanted visitors. Ask anyone who lives under an oppressive dictatorship or any overbearing form of government where that right is not a given, and you will find fear, anger, and dissent (and usually the blueprints of a revolt).

[nevermind1534]

I agree. I definitely wouldn't want somebody looking in my house, or taping.

[noopypoop]

Oh god, theyve almost gone to my town!:eek:

[Omega]

People taking pictures of the outside of my house or the Google Street View of it (which is almost a year old, back when the grass was still dead and before we got the lease, and it was all rainy outside, oh and we didn't have a ramp yet) is fine with me.

People going any further than that is not.

But I have a supply of CO2 and paintballs (and a paintball gun) so I feel pretty secure, even if somebody was doing something inappropriate. Because I know I can handle it if something does happen.

I also live in a pretty good neighborhood, everybody gets along and such. The only real concern is that my neighbor two houses down doesn't really take care of their house and they're kinda shady so it bothers me a little bit, but there haven't been problems yet.