This is basically a rehash of a reply I posted on Stefans blog, on why I don’t like streetview, well actually that’s not entirely true, it is more the way Google handles the streetview process I don’t like.
I live in the UK, and note I don’t read or listen to the tabloid press, but the whole idea of streetview taking shots of my house or my family without my permission gets my back up, if Google were opt in I would have no problem, but why should I be expected to search for images of myself or family and then ask google to remove them, my time is valuable too, but why should google care about that, they don’t have to pay me even the minimum wage for this
I realise yes we in the UK are monitored by CCTV all the time, I don’t like this either but that is a separate issue, but in theory that is done by private security firms and the police, not a private company who host the data for millions to see, there is a big difference.
I believe google should at least be expected to notify each area when the streetview cars are due, surely they have that information, it could easily be done by sending out flyer’s, making radio announcements, tv adverts, local newspaper advertisements or whatever. They don’t even have to list what areas are being targeted on which day, just have basic information about what streetview is, with information about where to obtain that data on dates, a webpage would be the minimum, I would also like the data available in the local town hall or council offices. Remember not everyone knows what streetview is, and some people probably don’t even know who google are.
I also expect streetview cars to obey any laws, and if they are found breaking laws the whole fleet should be stopped and investigated, if you are going to make money off of the public without them seeing a penny you should be expected to act responsibly.
One final note, this is not a public service google are doing, this is done to make a profit for a huge corporation, google earth may be free as in you don’t have to pay for it, (although you are expected to obey pretty strict ToS/EULA rules), but while using google products google are making money from you.