Angry British villagers block Google Street View car, incident captured on CCTV
By Thomas Ricker 
posted April 3rd 2009 6:51AM
posted April 3rd 2009 6:51AM
posted April 3rd 2009 6:51AM
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"I don't see that it's relevant that incorrectly addressed mail won't get to it's destination in the USA when I was trying to explain the snobbery of my wife's friend."
.I think you both did fairly well at describing how snobbery isn't exactly tied to one country alone and help explain how all this nationality angst is stupid.
They are just places to live! Quit bickering over it being a suburb, town, village, borough, alley, or hole in the wall.
Guys guys guys, whats with all this British-American hate? Can't we all just agree to hate the French?
Pic made me lol.
lololol --> bak-wərd
Google needs to be stopped. And we need to take further action. People shouldn't be able to walk about freely looking at houses, we need to remove all sidewalks and all cars need to be automated so you can't drive them and they should have NO windows. I mean to think people could look out and see me in my house! Good lord, the horrors! Please, write your local and state officials IMMEDIATELY! Something MUST be done to stop the madness!
From the country that has government TV cameras virtually everywhere, we have a revolt against a technology that's actually useful to civilians most likely just because it's American. Go figure...
CCTV cameras aren't in villages, theyre in cities! Why should a company come round taking pictures of your house accessible by everyone displaying your security measure, cars and ornaments inside your house to burglars or other criminals. They say that if a cctv camera prevents one crime from happening then it has done its job. Therefore we can say if google street view was used for the planning of one crime then it should taken down. It works both ways you know! Engadget seems to have quite an anti-privacy agenda going on what with the mocking of this!
What happens if Google street view was used to solve just one crime? Should it be put back up? What should be done about this case?
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/07/googles-street-view-takes-a-byte-out-of-crime/
Well the issue here is not CCTV run by the police, etc. The issue is the public has access to google street view and no one knows how exactly that information is used. There are already stories here in the US about nefarious types using google street view to see when people are not home so they can be robbed or when women are home alone, etc.
I have no issue with the cops being able to see the public streets for crime and such, but I do have issues with regular folk being able to count my cars, see when they are not there, see if I have a swing set or kids toys on the lawn, or any other pattern they may be looking for to do harm to me or my family.
Um, they could do all those things if they just drive down your street themselves? Doesn't need Google's help. It's not like Google update Street View images on an hourly basis or anything.
And yay, the latest bunch of crazies are from Broughton. That's near me! (Hmm, coincidence... or...) Which way do you pronounce that one? I know there are at least five different pronunciations of 'ou' in the surrounding so-called villages...
Great article and very funny.
As a Brit living in Holland I'm rather saddened by the negative comments made about our American friends.
Please don't pay any attention to them as they're just stressed at 10 years of a Labour Government.
Making big trouble out of something so simple as google mapping. I love street view and it has helped me find my way many times. Never even crossed my mind about "privacy."
Seriously? Never crossed your mind? You are a government's dream come true
The fundamental point here is that people should be able to control their privacy. I shouldn't be able to control your privacy. I shouldn't be able to follow you around with a video camera and document your life when you're in 'public' places. The normal social contract there is that you are agreeing to letting the people who are in those public places see you. Normally, nobody notices you, and if you're a private person, that's just fine. If you're interested in being seen, you do things to draw attention to yourself. Owning a home that is visible from a public street is not a statement of wanting to be seen.
Google permits people to get their pictures removed, and that is tolerable though not ideal. If that was the general model, I'd have to keep track of everyone who published information about me and then go ask them to stop. Do I really have to reclaim my privacy from everyone who tries to violate it? Businesses calling people at home started like that. Eventually, people got fed up with the invasion of their home and America created a national registry of telephone numbers that businesses could not call unsolicited. That mess happened at least in part because we don't respect each other's privacy.
As a British bloke with an American partner its funny to see British and Americans arguing like this. Reminds me of what happens when I forget to do the washing up. Come on people lets stop fighting and focus on the real enemy - the bl**dy French :)
Read what BBC tech correspondent Rory Cellan- Jones found in Broughton and listen to Google's response to the BBC via:
http://pr-media-blog.co.uk/google-meets-the-mob/
No comment. Those people is afraid of robbery? That's the only reason I can think of.
@Vanillacide
You know you're only getting a high rank because of your British accent, right? ;-)
All Your Base Are Belong To...
I can understand the disapproval of Google driving down your street and photographing you. I am wary of anything Google is doing these days. Not that I would mob the car or anything, but a little privacy is a good thing.
And I must say, as I read through this forum, I find it quite odd that Americans and the British spend so much time fighting tit-for-tat over remarkably inane topics. As an American who has spent the last few years living abroad in Japan, I find that both the Americans and the British give off a pretty bad impression wherever they go. I am in no way proud to be an American - in fact, I am constantly embarrassed, but I can't vouch for the behavior of the British being much better. We have built two distinct empires that are fading fast, heading toward collapse in the fashion of the Roman empire. Can't we agree that we are all idiots?
Don't leave out the rest of the western countries then, so that we can agree we are ALL idiots.
But if it helps to reduce the idiocy by pointing out eachothers madness we got used to that might be considered a good thing too perhaps, perhaps the next time something is proposed and someone who was scolded is in charge he might give pause before agreeing.
Think about this one, as I recall there are 4.5 million CCTV cams in britain (one for every 12 to 14 or so people), and the brits are always watching them, so let's say a single fascist creep (fill in whatever cute title you wish) can watch 10, that means they have like 450,000 people getting paid to sit there spying on people all day, from tax money, even if you make it 20, and even if you say some percentage that is counted are just recording not being monitored, then even so you'd have 100+ thousand idiots sitting there, plus supporting personal, ogling your every move.
And STILL people get mugged and murdered in their freaking home and axed to death andsoforth and the perpetrators getting away, so it's pretty well spent money too isn't it, not that these cameras are actually there to protect people of course, but let's amusingly accept their ruse for a moment.
Meanwhile they store DNA of people as young as 1yo and as old as 85yo's, just in case they form a toddler-oldies gang that plant bombs, once the kid can crawl. (j. smith watched too much family guy perhaps and is freaked by stewie?)
Hi, I'm from Stamford too. Let's be friends.
Instead of trying to inject common sense into the brains of all you idiots jumping on the "Oh Britain has soooo much CCTV, privacy issues WAH WAH" bandwagon I'm just going to release my frustration in reading it for the billionth time by screaming into this text box.
AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AGHH AGHH AGHH!!!
That is all
I wish
a) an american website could post an article about something to do with British life; and
b) a British website could post an article about something to do with American life
without these quasi-racist comments appearing. It happens all the time. The irony is that the UK and US are probably amongst the most similar two countries in the world and really we'd all love each other in person, no doubt.
Not as bad as youtube, though. Any video is guaranteed to run into an argument about the British and American contributions to WW2 if the comments thread goes on long enough. "Lol we saved your butts in WW2 you stupid limey bastards" "lol you dumb yank twats ever heard of operation seal lion?" etc.
Agreed, can't we all just get a along :D
The problem in articles like this is the world media. Its created this sensationalist crap about CCTV in the UK. Yes it has a lot of it, but its only used extensively in city centers/crime hot spots etc. It may not have as much effect on crime rates as was expected, but can you put a price on the safety of the people it has protected? :)
Thank you for restoring my faith in humanity lol
This is getting stupid. Why the hell would someone complain about Google taking pictures in a public place. There is no privacy in public streets. Do these people walk down the street shouting "dont look at me" or "blur your eyes while I pass".
I can understand people being miffed when you look at the birdseye view from Google maps and see them sunbathing in what is supposed to be a private back garden.
BTW I'm British and cant wait till Google drives down our road in our little village, bring it on.
This starts off really well - " Look we understand demands for privacy."
Americans surely do understand damands for privacy - by making their own terror acts against themselves and demand a see through world with security measures so that all humanity has lost its right for privacy. ffs! - ever wonder why people hate flying nowadays? Even more tapped phones than any in world war? Webcams everywhere? Internet restrictions ? Bionic implants so we can be tracked everywhere - anytime? cmon.
What a comment.
Freaking best picture-caption ever! At last Engadget you made me lol!!
BTW I cant understand it, I ve tried.. invasion of privacy my ass!! Some of you Brits are kookoo!
I would understand if your house was a fortress buried 7 miles underground!!! Your house is in the freaking street like other millions of houses on Google Streetview!!!!!!!!
Prozac country that is.
"you Brits" isn't whole UK population just a small, minute, insignificant group of twats.
I could say (presuming you are American) that you are fat, lazy and overly patriotic. But that would be a silly over generalisation of the complete population of the USA :P
I guess every village has it's idiot.....in this case, the guy in the video, who just brought way more attention to his property by making a scene.
theres madness in the uk, knife crime hysteria, giving up all their rights through fear, cameras/speed cameras everywhere, it doesn't work obviously so more rights are always ready to be given up. calls for random stop and search etc
more and more oppressive government big brother mentality, sometimes under the guise of health and safety or environmentalism. even freedom of speech is debatable there. never mind things like sharia law.
streetview is the least of their problems.
@ (01) :
"I think the illegal wiretapping in the states..."
when/where was this?
Thanks.