Monday, April 7, 2008

Don’t Be Evil Creepy

Check this out.

Is there a purpose to Google Street View? It seems they’re doing it because they can. Am I missing something?

16 comments:

PJD said...

I actually used it in San Francisco to find the elusive 24 Hour Fitness location in the financial district. Most of the time, though, it's just voyeurism at its laziest.

I hope Google doesn't drive into my driveway. And, since you can see our hot tub from the street, I hope they pick a time when we're not using it to do their drive-by of our house. Yikes.

Robin S. said...

I'm OK with this to find people see where they;re going in a business area.

I'm NOT OK with having my home up this close and personal, out there.

If I wanted Big Brother watching me, I'd move to a totalitarian state, dammit.

McKoala said...

Creepy's the right word. There are some just massive privacy questions arising out of this whole story.

Although I did have some fun yesterday visiting our old building in San Francisco and taking a quick cruise along Chestnut Street, where I used to shop.

Blogless Troll said...

Yeah, I don't mind the downtown areas, and I believe that's how it started out. But I don't see the point of photographing people's houses.

I Google Earthed my address, just to see what they had on me, and it came up with the wrong house (2 doors down). So I guess as long as humans are doing the programming, we still relatively safe.

Chris Eldin said...

I love this software. It helped DH and I find a new house.

And since we're in Dubai, we used to be able to watch the meth addicts and crackheads walk up and down our street of our old neighborhood. (okay, not really. but we could zoom in on the condoms and whiskey bottles left in our backyard while we're away)

Maybe I'm missing something, but from what I've used, it's a map photo that's stored electronically and updated every so often. It's not live. It's just an aerial photo. Are you talking about something different? And what's your address, btw?
heh heh

Blogless Troll said...

Yeah, Google Earth is just sat photos updated periodically like you said.

Google Street View is part of Google Maps. Those aren't live either. But those images are taken by a Google car with 8 cameras mounted on its roof. To me, driving through random residential areas snapping panoramic photos and posting them on the internet is just weird. Like I said, downtown areas, no problem. But even then, people have made a stink about that because they were caught going into strip clubs, or picking up hookers, or beating the shit outta someone.

I'm no conspiracy nut, but how long before we've got Google Street View Real Time, with streaming video from the street corner cameras that are being installed everywhere?

PJD said...

I'm no conspiracy nut, but how long before we've got Google Street View Real Time, with streaming video from the street corner cameras that are being installed everywhere?

John Ashcroft's wet dream come true.

Of course, if we had that (plus the Google cache), I would know who broke into my truck last week and took some (almost) worthless electronics and my garage door opener. Then who broke into it again a few days later and returned the garage door opener.

Big Brother is watching. And so is little sister, Aunt Edna, Gary Coleman, the creepy neighbor, all the people on the Megan's Law list...

Sarah Laurenson said...

We have become a society of voyeurs. Amazing. And I'm sure there's a market for the webcam driving randomly around the US. Maybe you should write a treatment and get it to a TV studio. Might as well make some bucks outta this, eh?
Yeah. Creepy is right.

Robin S. said...

I'm a privacy hound extraordinaire.
So this really annoys me.

If I wanna tell or show something - fine. But I want no decisions made for me on that. None.

Blogless Troll said...

Pete, that's either a thoughtful thief, or a dumb one. Do you keep anything of value in your garage? And have you checked it recently?

We have become a society of voyeurs.

Sarah, that's very true. But I'm pretty sure I've already seen that TV show.

If I wanna tell or show something - fine. But I want no decisions made for me on that.

Exactly, Robin. And that's what bothers me most. Really, the chances of something bad happening to you because a photo of your house is on the internet are probably very slim, but it's audacity of it. If I ever see that Google car on the road...

PJD said...

We discovered we could re-code the garage door openers. So we did. The only things of value we keep there are my two power tools (a cordless drill which I keep forgetting to charge up, and a circular saw which I think works fine).

And, I have to admit that my truck was not locked at the times the thief "broke into" it.

But I didn't expect the bloody Spanish Inquisition!

Blogless Troll said...

We discovered we could re-code the garage door openers.

Ah. That's exactly the sort of thing I would never think of. I'd make the family stand guard in rotating three hour shifts until they revolted because they don't place as high a value as I do on a wheelbarrow.

Chris Eldin said...

Just buy really thick curtains and a high resolution t.v.

In all seriousness, DH used to complain about all the telephone clicks we'd here when he was in the MidEast and I was in Bal'more. But all in all, 'they' didn't hear much. Me chewing him out for being away so long, him complaining about making money, the kids yelling in the background. "They" probably put us at the bottom of their list.

Now, if anyone breaks into my blog, I'm going to be seriously pissed.

bluesugarpoet said...

Interesting that you blogged about this today. When my husband came home from work, the first thing he did was get online and show me the shot of our house. We knew that the picture had to be taken last fall because our neighbor's car is parked in the street, and they moved in November. Luckily, the shrubs are too high in front of our house for any nakedness to be seen through the front bedroom window!

McKoala said...

Ironically enough it was in the news this week here...they're coming to Sydney.

I was stalked several years ago. My stalker would have loved this service. Thankfully (and I use that word deliberately) he is dead.

Sarah Laurenson said...

Huh. Checked out my house on this street view and you can't even see the house. Now if the stupid car had been 2 feet further down the street, they'd've seen some house through all the bushes and trees. Like if they'd actually looked up the driveway. I think I have to street view my neighbor across the street in order to see anything of my place.

The pic was fairly recent, too. That white pickup was out there within the last 6 months. And it was after they went nuts here and threw up stop signs at every corner.

Maybe this was post-lawsuit filing and they were being overly cautious. Nah. Must be the minimum wage driver who could give a shit.