‘Wi-Fi data safe’ pledge as Google hits the streets
Friday 13th August 2010, 2:29PM BST.
Google's street view car is due to visit the island in the coming weeks.
GOOGLE Street View has agreed not to capture Wi-Fi data in the Bailiwick when it visits the islands in the next couple of weeks.
Following talks with Guernsey’s data protection commissioner, the Google team has said it will only collect images of Guernsey and Alderney.
The Bailiwick of Guernsey Data Protection Office has confirmed that any pictures taken will be transferred to the US where identifiable information such as faces and car number plates will be blurred.
Further information will be posted on www.gov.gg/dataprotection in due course.
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“Following talks with Guernsey’s data protection commissioner, the Google team has said it will only collect images of Guernsey and Alderney.”
Peter Harris pointing out that Herm has no roads and in Sark cars are banned. Brilliant!
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We could really put Guernsey on the map if we were to lie down and play dead ( like that little girl in the news )when we see a camera car approaching
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a lack of roads or cars doesn’t stop street view.
They seen pictures of the street view quad bike, pedal tricycle and snow mobile.
Herm and sark on street view would be a great marketing tool
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i heard the see-through plastic woman from google on the wireless this morning spin the wonder of their web cameras silently patrolling the lanes of guernsey. and i still can’t be persuaded from the thought that i would be best to simply throw bricks at them.
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My friends daughter is on google earth and can clearly be seen sitting in her car outside her house for every pervert to veiw and know where she lives.
Google street view is nothing but voyerism without consent. Be warned Mr Google if any of my property appeers on your website without my consent I will consider it an invasion of my privacy and may well seek compensation through the courts. could you afford to lose. I can.
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CM – the problem with that comment is that no-one would know that your friend’s daughter is sitting outside her own house, her face should be blanked out (and if it is not then it can be reported to Google for them to fix), and you would not get any compensation because your simple remedy is to ask Google to blank out your house, which they will do without argument.
I don’t really understand the fascination at looking at these images, but nor do I think that there is any need to be paranoid. IF you are worried about what is visible from the street for every minute of the day, then you have a much bigger problem!
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I personally see no problem in it, you would soon get bored if you didn’t have a specific reason for looking at a specific area. I use google earth a lot and also their street images. I’m retired and we travel Europe for a couple of months at a time using camp sites. Its really useful before leaving to get an Idea of where your going and what your looking for. Lets not get too paranoid over the whole issue and make it something it isn’t
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Dear CM
You are quite right to be concerned about this outrageous invasion of your privacy.
Would you please be kind enough to publish you full address so that I can avoid inadvertently photographing your property by mistake if me or my family are out for the day and take any photographs – I would hate for any images of your house appearing on my Facebook page for god knows who to ogle ..
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I shall look forward to reading on thisisguernsey about the proverbial ‘Len Le Page’ throwing himself in front of the Google car swearing profusely about the invasion of privacy and threatening court action.
Ignorance would not describe it adequately. I wonder if ‘Len’ has assessed the opponent he might think about taking on. After he comes out of Room 101 he will, almost certainly, declare his love for Big Google.
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i have no logical argument for disliking this situation, but instinctively i know i want to creep up behind the google invader (after deploying a home made stinger, made from worn out vraic forks, gorse branches and chancre shells and then stick a big spud sack over its ghastly all-seeing dalek eye. let’s do it! it’s just one car with a soft inside. remeber we are not a number – we are a free man!
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Being an ex-Guern, now living in beautiful BC, Canada, we had Google Cam come around last year with street view. They have almost completed the entire west coast of Canada, and it is amazing to see things in such detail. A majority of realtor’s use it here to show the area around a property which they are selling. It is great – rather than doing a drive past to view the property you can do this from the comfort of your own home. It is also a fantastic way of giving directions, when you can see the junction, turning etc on the page in front of you – this gives you a visual image of your location.
As for peoples faces and license plate numbers appearing, yes they did mess up a few here, but they were put right within a day of notification.
As for invasion of privacy, taking a picture of your house from the roadside is not illegal as far as I read, and unfortunately all I see from CM comments on this subject, enforces the reason why we left the Island.
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@CM
If you could please state your address and description of your property so that I can make sure I close my eyes every time I drive/walk past therefore ensuring I don’t invade your privacy.
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I passed the Google car driving this afternoon and wondered, has anyone thought of the possible law enforcement potential? Take this example: a driver is suspected of driving without insurance and is caught on camera driving past the Google car; a kidnapper takes a young child and is caught on camera driving them away. OK, so the chances of these things happening are slim, but considering the amount of photography the car is doing around the world, the potential must be there.
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i saw the car today, zooming down cobo hill! i will never trust a wing-walker on a bi-plane again!!
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They should get permission to use the quad bike in Sark. Show potential visitors has beautiful it is.
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Dave,
The people who pass my door for the most part are not taking any notice of it, some people who look at sites such as google street view are looking to get information,do children live what sort of property is what time of the day was, was anybody in at that time. and all this for anybody everybody to see
I would hope when you pass my door your casing the place.
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CM
Think about what you just said?
How do they know who is in and out as it is not “live” and they dont actually drive in your house. Anyone can walk down the street to “case the joint”
I think some people dont fully understand how it all works.
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CM
Unfortunately you show a clear lack of understanding about this whole subject. Please explain what the difference between me driving past your house in real life and driving past on my PC?
And yes Google can ‘afford to lose’.
I also find it strange that upon hearing this news your first thoughts turn to ‘perverts’ and ‘voyeurism’. Hmmm.
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@CM
Have you actually been on Google Earth? Because it sound like you know the idea but haven’t actually seen it working. You can’t see in the houses either so would have no idea if someone is home or not.
It’s daylight (no point having streets in the dark!) but you have no idea what time it is, what day it is, or how long ago the photo was taken.
Those people who do use Google Earth for those reasons are not opportunists. If it wasn’t Google Earth it would be some other means. Like the old fashioned stake out. However I doubt the burglers and perverts of the world will be making a beeline to Guernsey to ramsack your 2 up and 2 down.
Also thousands of houses, thousands of people (if not millions) are on this….do you really think that you’re the first person that’s issued this kind of threat? And how many court cases have we heard? How many houses have just been blanked out or streets missed?
I’m all for privacy but you are transgressing into paranoid…
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Just to clarify CM, GoogleEarth is not a live feed. It’s a series of photographs taken at one point in time.
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“you have no idea … how long ago the photo was taken”
Which makes all the more pointless. What legitimate use is it, then?
“You can’t see in the houses either” – so you’ve evidently tried, eh? Voyeur!
Not at all paranoid, CM!!
It is difficult to articulate any tangible legal reasons to disallow this. It is equally difficult to articulate any reasonable moral or ethical reasons to allow it, as it is a breach of privacy. There are degrees of privacy which most of us accept. There is the intimate privacy of the inner sanctum of bedroom or bathroom; the privacy of the general run of our houses; the slightly lesser privacy of our dining rooms, drawing rooms and kitchens in which we entertain guests; further reduced privacy of the garden areas many of which can be viewed from a neighbouring property or publicly accessible point; there is a kind of privacy within one’s immediate neighbourhood, and indeed another of the island as a whole. These seem to me to be like concentric rings of defence, each requiring some effort to breach. This scheme effectively removes the two outer rings of island and neighbourhood, and brings the voyeurs of the outside world not just to our shores, but to our very front doors at the click of a mouse. Others here would argue that nobody will want to look – so why proceed with this? No, they cannot get beyond the front door – or can they? With postcode data (my house has one of its own) I can be identified, assessed for identity theft or whatever. Some of us value our privacy more than others.
Ultimately, this Google earth business will happen not because it is morally right, but because it is simply not illegal.
My opinion is that the law should be able to prevent the unautorised publication and/or reproduction of such data. An image of a house, published in isolation from any other data is just that. Coupled with maps, locations and postcodes, it becomes much more personal.
Maybe CM and I can copyright the image of our respective properties, to prevent unauthorised publication. Difficulty with that, CM, is that the blank space would attract more curiosity from the great unwashed and uneducated than anything else. Better to publish either all or nothing.
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Lol. Bob if I really wanted to be a voyeur I could get my kicks somewhere a lot more easier in fact (aside the rib digging from the missus) people watching is especially more interesting down Cobo on a hot bank holiday weekend! I suppose you could call me a perv but I think you’ll be hard pushed to call any of the 30yr old blokes down there watching the beach volleyball anything but. Have you actually used Google Earth? I have. I’ve used it to look up potential hotels for staying in whilst looking at holidays and to view the surrounding area (I often find that website pictures of hotels are misleading) and to also view routes for travelling.
What so you can see houses? Big whoop I seem them every day. What about all those people milling around when they do video news reports or a hundred other things where your personal image is recorded without you knowing about it.
I really can’t see the argument for an invasion of privacy. I think you and CM are getting worked up over nothing, I know we live in a slow news place but come on guys. Big brother is really not that interested in you. But if you really don’t want your property viewed then Google does state that you only have to ask and it will blur out your “Guernsey castle”.
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my head is with dave, my heart with bob and all of me is probably with google by now. i will google ‘blah’ on its street thingy and see if i can see my cat doing its business (and he better be next door!).
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even worse blah would be the milkman walking down your garden path when you don’t have milk delivered….
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“Big brother is really not that interested in you”
So why does he want to photograph my @!!^%@! house, and then place that data in geographical context for all the world too see?
Will I get a royalty for each viewing? I should.
“I’ve used it to look up potential hotels for staying in whilst looking at holidays and to view the surrounding area (I often find that website pictures of hotels are misleading) and to also view routes for travelling.”
Heck, that’s 4 references to looking or viewing in a single sentence. Still claim you’re not a voyeur?
Makes little sense if you can’t tell how old the pictures are, as stated in your 11:21. But that’s exactly the kind of resource a travelling criminal would like – nice hotel, big houses, quiet residential area, no cop shop – that you say they wouldn’t use.
As for blurring out, I refer you to the last sentence of my earlier posting – It’d simply attract more attention.
I’m off down the pub to get well and truly pixellated. Maybe the Googlemobile will turn up as I’m tottering home along the pavement.
If so, I will muster what may be left of my sobriety and hurl over it in an attempt to block the lenses.
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That’s ok Bob.
Due to my advanced computer hacking skills I’ve managed to hack into This Is Guernsey, find your IP address, track your home address from that and am presently sat outside your house with a pair of binoculars….can you please do something interesting as Blah’s cat is distracting me. Also your hedge could do with a bit of a trim…
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What? this can’t be right, I haven’t painted yet! Google, I beg you, give me just 3 more weeks or I’ll move the whole family to Bing and no messin’.
Or, maybe they’ll airbrush it for me? Oh the shame of it {:o(
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Bob
I wouldnt worry about Google! your down the pub and Dave has shown me your address. I am waiting for the lorry to back up but its late as hes using google earth for directions and your blurry house looks nothing like the real thing…..
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CM: Similar comments were made when William Caxton invented the printing press and ‘moving pictures’ were first seen in the early 20th Century. In ten years time Google Earth will be part of our the fabric of our society like every other form of communication.
And by the way; your children are at more risk from abuse by immediate family members and close friends, than strangers. So you really have nothing to worry about…
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CM – what on earth is your neighbour doing in her car outside her house to attract perverts anyway?
Everyone is just getting their knickers in a twist about absolutely everything at the moment – paranoid or what?
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The camera has broken down a few times already, lol.
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Saw the Google car heading down towards Rousse pier this afternoon, perhaps he needs a GPS.Or perhaps someone told him to take a long walk off a short pier.
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@GG – it must have taken a photo of my face lol ;-)
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Oh No! Watch out – the camera is evil and will steal your soul!!!
I thought I’d just add to the nonsense being written here by Bob & CM
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Finished with my woman ‘cos she couldn’t help me with my mind…Just because you think I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get us.
Gogglemobile sat outside entrance to Fort George yesterday, at around 14:30. Clearly out to get them, too.
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Bob – even the mighty google car waits with cap doffed, as it is not allowed into fort george until all their servants have licked road clean with their tongues.
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