It is interesting how Google is complying with requests from families and individuals but is refusing to cooperate with the SAS.
The Google camera car is making its rounds of the streets and alleys of the UK in order to put in Street View as a UK available function. On the offset, this is a good thing. It will allow people to easily check out places and locations they have never been to before. Establishments and businesses will certainly gain a little extra from the exposure and this will certainly make for a very useful tool for promoting tourism in special locations.
The story is a little different for residential areas where there is a combination of people who are just plain excited to see their street as part of the service and people who wish to have images of their houses removed from the service.
There are also cases in which the Google cam car has taken images in the most unfortunate moments. Take into example the image of a teenager who was standing in the house’s driveway just weeks before the person fell victim to murder. The family has since requested the image removed and Google has complied with the request.
Google has also taken images of the SAS headquarters –from a street level perspective.
While the information in the photos is nothing different from what people would see if they were just walking by, the SAS has requested that for security reasons, the images be taken down. Google has refused this request by stating that they have not posted any sensitive information, the images online are the same as what a normal person would see when passing by.
So far, no compromise has been agreed upon by the two parties and there are now fears that the situation may escalate if it is not resolved soon.
Get to know more about the Google Street View service at Times Online UK.
Tags: Google-Street-View