It may take more than a village to scare away Internet search behemoth Google. This week, Google employees were met by angry citizens in the village of Broughton Buckinghamshire, England, when they began photographing homes.
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Villagers in the upscale U.K. town chased away a car used by Google to collect images and data for its Street View service.
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Google’s Street View, initially launched in 2007, is a combination of Google Maps and Google Earth that gives users both horizontal and vertical panoramic views of streets in various cities. Since its launch Google has also added the service to its Maps application on Apple’s iPhone and to the Microsoft Windows Mobile version of Google Maps.
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Street View photos are taken by a fleet of cars in several countries, including Japan, Italy, France and, just this month, the Netherlands and the U.K. London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow, Belfast, Amsterdam and Rotterdam are some of the cities that have been added to Street View.
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Google captures images by mounting a camera on its cars. In the United States, Google uses Chevrolet Cobalts, and in the United Kingdom it uses Vauxhall Astras. When an area cannot be accessed by car, Google uses bikes.
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subheadPrivacy vs. Interest/subhead
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Since its launch, Google’s Street View service has been met with complaints of privacy. Views have been found to show individuals picking up prostitutes and leaving strip clubs, sunbathers in bikinis, and protesters at abortion clinics.
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While Google maintains that all the views are taken in public areas, some people don’t want their activities to be seen publicly. Google has received hundreds of requests to remove images, and the company said it has complied.
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Blurring technology and operational controls like image removal are among the ways in which we ensure that an individual’s privacy is respected, Google says on its Web site. We…