General Discussion

You can now take a tour around Dawlish by going onto Google Maps and using their Street View tool! See if you can spot yourself, your car, or your mobility scooter...

What an invasion of privacy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree. I have to say that I can see no merit in it, nor does it have any "public good" defence.

Invasion of privacy in what sense? Serious question.

Do I want people watching me go about my business? What if somebody with criminal intentions watch me go out get in my car and drive off knowing my property is empty? The list is endless !!!!!!!

Er, it's not a real-time video or, dare I say, CCTV!!! It's a snapshot, or a collage of photos if you prefer, apparently taken around Christmas 2008 but only published today. You've obviously never seen it, yet you're morally outraged! A typical Daily Mail reader, I'd say. So, I ask again. How does it invade ones privacy? Sensible answers only this time please.

@Dawlish Man. love your reply to pjd. well done. some people are so behind the times. all the fuss about this is a couple of years old. have they been on another planet? and yes, you are so right. outraged and throw arms up in the air, and they dont know what they are talking about.

Dawlish Man, .... although, as I do not expect you to agree, you may not find it sensible. I certainly have no interest in trying to persuade you or anyone else to agree with me and I do not have time to compose a fully reasoned statement of my views. I hope that this will do as a brief summary. I think that photographing or filming people without their knowledge and then publishing the results is ethically dubious at best. In this context, it is the publication that bothers me as no consent has been sought. The fact that it is now commonplace in other contexts does not make me feel any better about it. In practical terms, I am also concerned about the introduction of a mechanism that, while not necessarily envisaged initially as a surveillance tool, could come to be used in that way. During the tenure of the current government there has been an exponential increase in measures traditionally associated with authoritarian states and a creeping invasion of civil liberties. I do not trust any government or any political party. Put the means in their hands and you cannot then control how they are used in a pseudo-democracy where MPs essentially vote as they are told to do by their party. Don

All faces and car registration plates are blurred out. If anyone is unhappy about the contents of any image, they can click on the Report button, and Google WILL deal with the complaint. I wonder if anyone photographed in the old postcards (on the other thread) complained about their civil liberties being taken away??! Whilst appreciating your point of view, I can't see the link between Street View and the State. There are far better ways of keeping an eye on those who have something to hide ;-)

Street View is great ..mind I've got nothing to hide. I am moving house and you can view the road and houses both sides of the street it saves so much time, is nice to see places and areas you have lived at too.

Hello. Dont some of you realise that this Google street map is NOT LIVE VIEW..... You cannot see the goings and comings of people, vehicles, dogs running loose, NOTHING. Just a still picture that was taken over 2 years ago. Dawlish Man has already told you that, but it obviously didnt sink in to some of you.

Looking at the areas I grew up in (or been on holiday to), to see how they've changed, is one of the reasons why I love Street View! Apparently 60% of users use to help them get directions to a destination, whilst 25% use it to find their next home. Others use it to take a peek at the next holiday destination (great idea!). It's such a pity that people in this country are so full of cynicism.

You can take it for granted that I do understand Dawlish Man's posts.

Dawlish Man aka Roy + Investigator we are all entitled to our opinions without fear of sarcasm in reply. My fears are like Dons, how far will this go in the not so distant future Im afraid there are a lot of people today who have been brainwashed !!!!

Dawlish Man, I would not want to give the impression that the current use of Google Street is high on my list of concerns. The proliferation of cctv would be much higher and I know that we have different views on that. However, I believe that the raw images from Google Street and its successors, which may then contain live photographs and video, could be published and misused by state or commercial intersts in the future. The current Google Street is a foot in the door. Pushing the door further open may take place with rather less debate than took place over its introduction. I think that your view is that only those with something to hide need worry about surveillance. This is understandable if you view the state and its agents as, broadly, benign. I am afraid that I do not. As you know, the spirit in which legislation is introduced is frequently lost as the letter of the law is applied. In the last few years there have been plenty of well-publicised cases where anti-terrorist legislation has been invoked in circumstances far removed from those envisaged. Local authorities and the police are not above using such measures for quite trivial purposes once they are on the statute book. I also think, maybe wrongly, that you take the view that "the law is the law". Unfortunately, authoritarian states introduce laws that achieve their objectives by turning people into criminals. The Stalinist Soviet Union did not send innocent people to the gulags - they were criminals according to the law. Anyone can think of examples around today's world, differing in degree but not in principle. The argument that it is impossible to imagine abuses of power by the British Government against its own people may be called into question by more than would have done a few decades ago. My problem with all this is that we are allowing tools to be put in place that offer more potential for harm than they do for good. On a more cheerful note, at least you and I agree about the Tory press. Don

Google has apologised after its Street View photo mapping service showed a frontal view of a naked child on a family day out Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1257622/Google-faces-storm-naked-child-Streetview.html#ixzz0i2ltU8yb It also showed the number plate of a car which could trace the owners address. I guess its up to individuals to make up their own mind whether its a good thing or not

The Daily Mail eh? Big Brother Watch eh? As for car number plates. I've found out that if I step outside of my front door with a pen and paper, I can write down car number plates!!!! Write them down I tells you!!!! And find out where the owners live!!!!!!!!! Then eat their children!!!!!!! (Sensationalist exclamation marks deliberate)... Get a grip man.

Thanks for your cogent response Don.

Not even an up to date map...