Google and the mob

This just in from the department of paranoid and illogical: Buckinghamshire village has managed to thwart the evil plans of Google by stopping the Street View car from taking pictures of their streets. Residents joined forces after one of their members got the mob mentality going with gems like the following:

“I was upstairs when I spotted the camera car driving down the lane,” he said. “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.”

Yes, apparently the street has had 3 robberies in the past 6 weeks (all before the Google car turned up mind you!) and the villagers think that having images of their homes on the web will increase crime. Lucky they’ve managed to put a stop to it though. Whatever will burglars do now?

And I thought it was only the Asia-Pacific nations that need to be worried about Google.

Note, there are legitimate privacy concerns of course, and Google will remove images upon request. Just use the ‘Report a problem’ link on the bottom of the Street View page.