Mob Mentality Rules In Britain....

With the G20 gangsters, Soccer hooligans and all the likes I can't see what liberal admire so much about the ever expanding land called Eurabia, and especially our rapidly declining Motherland Great Britain.

I've been against Google street view from the beginning but prefer to use the pen as my gun and sword as opposed to mobbing the poor guy just making a living driving around the Google van or car charged with mapping the streets. I have no problem with this thing for businesses who are right in plain view, I just oppose the snapping of residential areas and military or police type installations....

This article below seems like it coulda been written in the times when villagers mobbed Dr Frankenstein's laboratory back in the medieval days....

Village mob thwarts Google Street View car

- Times Online: "Angry villagers formed a human chain to thwart the progress of a Google Street View car that was in the process of taking photographs of their homes.

Police were called to Broughton in Buckinghamshire yesterday, after furious villagers blocked one of the cars, complaining it was an invasion of their privacy and that the photographs would attract burglaries.

Paul Jacobs, a local resident, spotted the car yesterday morning, thanks to the distinctive 360-degree camera attached to its roof. He told the driver not to enter the village, then roused fellow residents by knocking on their doors. The driver eventually did a U-turn and left the scene.

Google Street View, a controversial mapping service that launched in the UK last month, gives 360-degree views of Britain’s biggest cities, allowing people to take virtual tours from their computers or mobile phones." Google's camera-equipped cars are now back on the road, aiming to update the service to cover as much of Britain as possible. The cars have been spotted recently in towns such as Winchester, Chelmsford and Ipswich.

In the past six weeks there have been three break-ins in Broughton, near Milton Keynes, and residents fears that the digital photographs of their roads would be used as a tool in further burglaries.

Google says the car was on a public road and therefore not breaking the law. The company said it would remove any images that members of the public object to.

Mr Jacobs said, “I was upstairs when I spotted the camera car driving down the lane.

“My immediate reaction was anger; how dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent? I ran outside to flag the car down and told the driver he was not only invading our privacy but also facilitating crime This is an affluent area. We’ve already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks. If our houses are plastered all over Google it’s an invitation for more criminals to strike. I was determined to make a stand, so I called the police.”

A spokeswoman for Thames Valley Police confirmed, “A squad car was sent to Broughton at 10.20am on Wednesday to reports of a dispute between a crowd of people and a Google Street View contractor. A member of the public had called us to report that he, along with a number of others, were standing in the middle of the road preventing the car from moving forwards and taking photographs. They felt his presence was an intrusion of their privacy. When police arrived at the scene, the car had moved on.”

A spokesman for Google said, "Embarking on new projects, we sometimes encounter unexpected challenges, and Street View has been no exception. We know that some people are uncomfortable with images of their houses or cars being included in the product, which is why we provide an easy way to request removal of imagery. Most imagery requests are processed within hours."

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If Brit's Get Streetview Limited Maybe We Could Do The Same Here?

This new tech is very cool and all that stuff and I've blogged about this street view int e UK issue that started a month ago when a UK Sub base was uncovered by Google maps and then then in the past week it all came to a head when a naked child a few feet away from a British dignatarie's home was included in a streetview shot that's understandably caused an uproar.

There's supposed to be a software patch that distorts faces and such to make them unrecognizable and too these are snapshots at some moment in time, it's not like it's a live shot that some evildoer driving around can use to hunt down naked children. However I'm of the position that this technology is really not useful for anything but the Wowee factor and sattelite maps with road information superimposed is all thats really necessary for this to be the most useful tool that it can be which is a great thing. I use it all the time, but we don't think like terrorists and criminals do, and this makes their so called professions much easier to do.

Britain is taking steps to stop it and so should we in this blogger's humble educated opinion

Watch the snotty Google rep with his flippant comments where he says in response to a lawsuit filed by Great Britain "Oh, we get sued every day" well that's something to be proud of buddy...

Call to 'shut down' Street View:

BBC NEWS | Technology | "A formal complaint about Google's Street View has been sent to the Information Commissioner (ICO).

Drawn up by lobby group Privacy International (PI), it cites more than 200 reports from members of the public identifiable via the service.

PI wants Street View shut down while the ICO investigates the service.

'The ICO has repeatedly made clear that it believes that in Street View the necessary safeguards are in place to protect people's privacy,' said Google.

Privacy International (PI) director Simon Davies said his organisation had filed the complaint given the 'clear embarrassment and damage' Street View had caused to many Britons.

Speaking to the BBC, Google boss Eric Schmidt, said: 'We agree with the concerns over privacy.

'The way we address it is by allowing people to opt out, literally to take anything we capture that is inappropriate out,' he said 'and we do it as quickly as we possibly can.'

He added: 'We are getting controversy over street view because it is so successful. It turns out that people love to see what is going on in their local community.'"

Private and public

Mr Davies said Street View fell short of the assurances given to the ICO that enabled the system to launch.

"We're asking for the system to be switched off while an investigation is completed," said Mr Davies.

"The Information Commissioner never grasped the gravity of how a benign piece of legislation could affect ordinary lives," he added.

In July 2008, the ICO gave permission for Street View to launch partly because of assurances Google gave about the way it would blur faces and registration plates.
Google removed image
Google has removed some images following complaints

Since Street View launched in the UK on 19 March, PI has been contacted by many people identifiable via the service.

Among them were a woman who had moved house to escape a violent partner but who was recognisable outside her new home on Street View.

Also complaining were two colleagues pictured in an apparently compromising position who suffered embarrassment when the image was circulated at their workplace.

The ICO said it had received the complaint from PI and would respond "shortly".

It added: "It is Google's responsibility to ensure all vehicle registration marks and faces are satisfactorily blurred.

"Individuals who feel that an image does identify them (and are unhappy with this) should contact Google direct to get the image removed," it added.

"Individuals who have raised concerns with Google about their image being included - and who do not think they have received a satisfactory response - can complain to the ICO."

Safeguards

"Data protection is a question of taking reasonable steps," said Nick Lockett, an IT lawyer with DL Legal.

"If Street View is infringing privacy then almost anything you can do with data is going to be infringing privacy," he added.

Struan Robertson, a legal director at Pinsent Masons, said he did not think the turning on of Street View would result in court action against Google for breaching privacy.

"That's largely because we have got rulings from the courts on when a photograph risks privacy rights and when it does not," he said.

Recent cases in the courts have revolved around whether the focus of a camera was on an individual. Google's Street View, which snaps the whole scene, would seem to pass that test, he said.

Responding to the filing of the complaint, Google described it as a "publicity stunt"

In a statement the firm said: "Before launching Street View we sought the guidance and approval of the independent and impartial Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)."

Google said the ICO had re-iterated its confidence that Street View did enough to protect privacy.

"The fact that some people have used the tools in place to remove images shows that the tools work effectively," it added.

"Of course, if anyone has concerns about the product or its images they can contact us and we look forward to hearing from them," it said.

Mr Davies said the ICO should take another look at Street View because of the promises Google gave about the efficacy of its face-blurring system.

In its complaint, PI said Google's assertion that its face blurring system would result in a "few" misses was a "gross underestimation".

This meant, said the complaint, that the data used for Street View came under Data Protection legislation which requires that subjects give permission before information is gathered.

"The promised privacy safeguards do not provide adequate protection to shield Street View from the general requirement of notice and consent," said the complaint.

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People In Britain Fight Google's Street Views & Good For Them

I've written about this a few times and this below is from my last post where one of Britain's hidden Nuclear sub bases was uncovered by Google Earth thus adding it to Jihadding terrorists places to visit in the future, especially with so many of them making Britain their new home....

Yet another example today comes this time from British citizens themselves demanding Google's street view mapping be scaled back if not entirely revamped allowing every single person, business and every government entity who wishes, to opt out of the street level mapping and satellite imagery as this service detail is only of any real use for nefarious purposes.

For instance here are the mapping images of my residence in Buffalo Grove Illinois, as this id the image that comes up right to my kitchen window practically since I live off a main thoroughfare, this is a little invasion of privacy if you ask me and were I given the option I'd have it taken down and may do so now that these Brits have done it..

If an enemy of mine wanted to track me down (likely a lunatic lib blogging troll if was such a person after me as I have no enemies) all they need is my address to see the layout of my property which is admittedly neat the first time you see it on Google Maps, then the novelty wears off and it's quite troublesome and problematic after that in my opinion.

Here's the satellite view of the property and surrounding area as well..

Google Street View forced to remove images -

News, Gadgets & Tech - The Independent:
"Google was forced to remove a photograph of a naked child from its Street View service last night as a row over internet privacy escalated into one about public safety.

The Independent on Sunday alerted the internet search giant after finding the image of the toddler, playing at a family summer picnic in a garden square in north London, captured permanently on the revolutionary mapping system. Britain's privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, is considering an investigation into Google if more images of naked children are found to have been picked up by its cameras and made available to internet users.

Google has had hundreds of requests for images to be removed since it launched Street View on Thursday, including pictures of members of the public leaving sex shops or vomiting in the street. But the pictures of young children suggest the service could be exploited for more sinister purposes.

Last night it also emerged that Tony and Cherie Blair are among hundreds of people who have demanded that close-up photographs of their homes be removed. The Blairs' home in Connaught Square, wes"

Pictures of Downing Street were also taken down, although it is not a private address and the location is photographed by millions of tourists every year.

The images of the children were taken last summer and show a typical scene of garden square life in a quiet side-street.

The IoS is not naming the address for privacy reasons, but the square is just yards from a Cabinet minister's home, although the children are not related to that minister.

The images of the garden square were removed by Google within an hour of the company being informed yesterday. The picture had been found by this newspaper within only 10 minutes, suggesting there could be many similar images on the website.

The Tory MP Edward Garnier said: "The right to privacy, and not to become the victim of some corporation's profit-making activities, is clearly something that needs to be protected. We all have an expectation that our privacy should not be invaded or exploited for commercial purposes."

A spokesman for the Information Commissioner's Office said: "We will consider the IoS story carefully. Images of children must be properly blurred. If there is an underlying problem, for example if what has been uncovered is systemic, then we will take up the matter with Google.

"It is Google's responsibility to ensure all images of adults and children are satisfactorily blurred. Individuals who feel that an image does identify them [and are unhappy with this] should contact Google direct to get the image removed.

"Individuals who have raised concerns with Google about their image being included – and who do not think they have received a satisfactory response – can complain to the ICO."

A spokeswoman for Google said last night: "We will remove these pictures as quickly as possible." She insisted that the pictures had been taken on a public road – although the street is not a thoroughfare. "This is still on the side of a public road. It [the camera] takes pictures at any time, and it [records] a fleeting moment."

Asked whether Google was concerned that there would be other pictures of children, for example outside schools, the spokeswoman said: "Most of the faces are blurred. If they haven't been, parents can hit a button and remove it [the image]. They show what is going on in the street at a particular moment; they are not live."

Google has defended its use of the mapping service, which covers more than 22,000 miles and 25 UK cities, saying that the degree of clarity of the images is no different to those shown in estate agents' literature.

But there are question marks over whether, in reality, an estate agent would be able to take photographs of naked young children playing outside, without being challenged.

In a fresh twist, the Metropolitan Police denied claims by Google that it had been consulted about Street View prior to its launch. A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "We have not been involved in discussions with Google regarding their product development."

After earlier insisting that "99.99 per cent" of faces featured in Street View were blurred, Google admitted yesterday that this had been a "figure of speech" as it was clear that thousands of people can be identified. "The technique is not totally perfect," the spokeswoman said. "The idea is not to blur every single face, only those that can be clearly identified."

Among faces not obscured was a police officer standing guard outside the London home of Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, which was at the centre of a row over her expenses.

The Blairs' grand Georgian house, with two police officers stationed outside, can still be viewed from an angle, but a close-up image of the property has been removed. A spokesman for the Blairs could not be contacted for comment. Google refused to comment on the Blairs' individual case, but said images were being blacked out at the "user's request".

The company's discomfort was compounded by a former criminal, Michael Fraser, who wrote in The Sun yesterday that Street View was a "gift to criminals".

Germans in the country's northern state of Schleswig-Holstein are threatening to take legal action against Google because of fears that its photographs of the region's towns and streets are in breach of the country's strict privacy laws.

A campaign against the internet giant has been launched from the small provincial town of Molfsee, near Kiel, and is being eagerly watched by dozens of other towns and cities in the region which has a population of close to 3 million.

"We are not going to let this happen," said Reinhold Harwart, Molfsee's conservative mayor. "This is opening people's houses and homes to criminals. All this information is taken back to the United States and being processed. This can't be allowed," he told the IoS.

Similar concerns have been voiced by Marit Hansen, the state's deputy officer in charge of data protection, and by Peter Schaar, Germany's federal data protection chief, who said he has major misgivings about Google Street View. His office is currently investigating the issue.

The campaigners want Google to be obliged to obtain a street permit, similar to those held by vendors and market stall holders, before they take photographs. "We would then have the option of refusing them permission, which is what we would do," Mr Harwart said.

Google's spokesman for northern Europe claims, however, that Germany's streets are public property and that the concern does not need a permit to take pictures. "We are not a tool designed for criminals," a spokesman said.

Google Street View started photographing Germany in 2008 and the company has already taken pictures of many of the country's major towns and cities. Harwart said his campaign planned to sue Google Street View if the concern was found to be in breach of privacy laws.

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Google Earth, A Terrorists "Must Have" Tool For Sure

Yet another example comes this time from British Military showing exactly why Google Earth needs to be scaled back if not entirely revamped allowing every person, business and every government entity who wishes to opt out of the street level mapping and satellite imagery an option to do so as this service detail is only of any real use for nefarious purposes.

Just look at this image that comes up right to my front door practically since I live off a main thoroughfare, this is a little invasion of privacy if you ask me..

If an enemy of mine wanted to track me down (likely a lunatic lib blogging troll if there is such a person) all they need is my address to see the layout of my property which is admittedly neat the first time you see it, then it's quite troublesome and problematic after that in my opinion. Here's the satellite view of the property and surrounding area..

So today Britain is reporting that a nuclear sub base previously unknown to the public is now terrorist ready which is troubling to say the least for them and people in the immediate areas as they can't just pick up shop and move the thing to a new location now can they? Of coarse they can relocate the subs but not the entire base.

Not to mention the usefulness of this information to our passive enemies like Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, we're an open book to these people and freedom of information can be curbed in a big way and should be when it comes to our national security and our defense department installations. They claim these things are blurred out but not for here in the US! Why would the most valuable and target rich country in the world be an open book for terrorists even domestic ones benefit from this new freaky technology.

Google Earth Uncovers British Nuclear Sub Base, Missile Facility

FOXNews.com - - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News:

"Britain's nuclear defense headquarters could be under threat from terrorists using Google Earth.

Close-up aerial views of the top-secret naval base are on the computer program — available for free over the internet.

It even reveals the longitude and latitude of the facility in Faslane, Scotland — home to the U.K.'s Trident-armed nuclear submarine force.

And pictures clearly show two vast Vanguard Class submarines — each capable of carrying 16 nuclear missiles.

Military experts warn that would make it easy for terrorists to launch accurate mortar or rocket attacks.
One told The Sun: 'A strike on our nuclear capability would cause untold devastation. Terrorists could have a field day, knowing exactly where to aim strikes to cause the maximum devastation.'

As well as HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane, the program also clearly shows the Trident Special Area near Coulport, just 10 miles away, where nuclear warheads are stored.

[Both facilities are also visible on the Internet via Microsoft's Live Search Maps.]"

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