The San Francisco Chronicle writes, "English villagers blocked a car taking photographs of their homes for Google's StreetView mapping service Wednesday..." If I hadn't read any further, I would have thought that these indigenous peoples of the isolated British island had every right to be angry at the Google vehicle. The rambunctious automobile probably scared the livestock. But then I read further. The villagers were "complaining that the images invaded their privacy and increased the risk of burglary." Now I'm wondering how many livestock burglars utilize Google Maps to strategically plan an assualt.
Livestock burglarly jokes aside, Paul Jacobs, a resident of Broughton, accused the Google vehicle of facilitating crime. Because the neighborhood is "an affluent area" and Broughton has "already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks" Google is inviting "more criminals to strike." Paul Jacobs may have won this battle, but the 373 news articles relating to "villagers chase away Google car" are not helping his desire to draw "less" attention to the affluent area.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/02/BUQQ16RSQS.DTL
