Ians Ramblings Ian's ramblings, daily, ish

Privacy

My first rant of perhaps many to come on personal or lack thereof on the internet. After speaking to a friend of mine, I realised my home had been photographed without my permission and plastered on Google's street view.

Now in principle there is nothing wrong with having streets mapped out and perhaps cg house just representing the location of buildings on that street. I find the photographing of each individual house hugely invasive moreover when combined with all the other information drifting around that would easily allow the linking of this to an individual I think it could be hugely irresponsible too.

It's even worse for people who are individually identifiable, my friend was photographed leaving his home!

Now there is a process for removing your home from this orwellian tracking site and the procedure is as follows: -

Go to google maps search for your post code, then when you see the little popup click the link for "street view" then at the bottom there is a report a concern in tiny semi transparent lettering.

Click that and report your concern, so far I have this response, I will post their responses as we go and see how this plays out!: -

"According to our records, you recently submitted a report regarding aninappropriate image in Street View on Google Maps. We are currentlyreviewing the material you reported to determine whether the imageshould be removed from the product. We appreciate your assistance.Yours sincerely, The Google Maps Team"