I think people are taking this thing a bit to seriously. It's only the front of your house people, if someone really wanted to they could drive to your location and actually see it. |
Why not just build a fence in front of your property so nobody can see in. Or maybe a 20 foot wall with shards of glass along the top. |
I'm going to come take a picture of your house right now and there isn't a single law that can stop me. Except that I won't, because... well... because I don't care. I'd say most people don't care and never will. It's only the front of your house. You show it to anyone who drives down your street, let the Internet see it, too. People taking their houses and whatnot off street view are ruining the fun for everyone. |
Unless they are part of the vanishingly small fraction with fully paid off mortgages, it is not even their house. They are just renters. |
> I'm going to come take a picture of your house
> right now and there isn't a single law that can
> stop me.
There is also no law against crawling a server, and yet, some people prefer Google not to crawl their servers... robots.txt is simply a protocol that Google agrees to respect. |
I think it would be down to the owner of the road as to if the google car is allowed to crawl it & views of houses from on the road are public property.
I understand that people may want the pictures taken down when they accidentally left their house interior visible from the road, but find it annoying that some want to prevent the public from being able to see public property :-(
(in the case of crawling a server, robots.txt is a simple & convenient way of implementing control – the server does, in theory, get to not provide files which are requested by crawler) |
I wonder when the first streetview photo will be taken which includes a sign like the one Stefan linked to.
It's sure to happen eventually, and will be quite amusing when it does. Unfortunately, my house is down a lane and I doubt Google will visit, so I can't do it myself.
http://www.stefankulk.nl/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/robotstxt-bordje.jpg |
Back to topic – opting out of Street View: Germans will be able to opt out of Street View before the service is even launched in Germany. http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20090427-18915.html
Will this set a precedent for other countries where Street View hasn't yet been launched? |
I'd wouldn't worry about the gov't or the authorities requesting copies of the Goggle's internal photos. Reality is a lot less like TV than people would like to believe.
The chances of Google taking the picture at the exact moment the authorities needed the information are pretty slim.
And anyone committing a crime when a StreetView car is driving by probably deserves to get busted and have their face publicly displayed as part of their punishment. |
