Free Republic

MIDDLETOWN, Ind. (WXIN) — Google Maps Street View could soon feature breakneck snapshots of an in-progress police pursuit after a Florida man, who claimed to work for the mapping tech giant, led Middletown police officers on a high-speed chase all while a 360-degree camera was mounted to the roof of his car. Coleman Ferguson is currently being held in the Henry County Jail where he faces one count of resisiting law enforcement with a vehicle, a Level 6 felony. According to the Middletown Police Department, a Google Maps Street View car was clocked driving past Shenandoah High School on U.S....

LEWISVILLE, TX — In a move privacy advocates are hailing as historic, Texas's state legislature has passed a batch of new laws allowing civilians to shoot Google Maps camera cars on sight. "These new laws will allow Texans to exercise their God-given, constitutionally guaranteed, and morally necessary rights to blow away any of these creepy-crawly Googl-y spy cars." Texas Governor Abbott spoke to members of the press outside the statehouse, resting the heels of his hands on what onlookers called "comically large guns" on a "comically large belt with a comically large belt buckle" designed to look like a longhorn...

Less than a month after a still unexplained suicide took place inside a conference room at Apple headquarters, there seems to be more trouble in Silicon Paradise. According to CBS, an incendiary device ignited a fire late Thursday night at the offices of digital giant Google, damaging a Google Earth demo car and leaving a large singe mark on one of the buildings, authorities said. Mountain View firefighters were called to the massive complex on Salado Drive at about 10:52 p.m. Arriving firefighters were met by Google security personnel and guided to an area where the car, used in Google’s...

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Google Inc's bid to dismiss a lawsuit accusing it of violating federal wiretap law when it accidentally collected emails and other personal data while building its popular Street View program. The justices left intact a September 2013 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which refused to exempt Google from liability under the federal Wiretap Act for having inadvertently intercepted emails, user names, passwords and other data from private Wi-Fi networks to create Street View, which provides panoramic views of city streets. The lawsuit arose soon after the Mountain...

AFP - A driver collecting video data for internet giant Google's Street View feature in Indonesia slammed into two vehicles after trying to flee responsibility for an earlier crash, police said Saturday. The Indonesian man had been driving a Subaru hatchback ... when he hit a public minivan. "He did accompany the minivan driver to the garage, but he said he was scared the repair fee would be high, so he got in his damaged car and fled," Bogor district police operations chief Hendra Gunawan told AFP. ... "He has been released and all the payments for the vehicles have...

Software giants will use military-grade cameras to take powerful satellite images Spy planes able to photograph sunbathers in their back gardens are being deployed by Google and Apple. The U.S. technology giants are racing to produce aerial maps so detailed they can show up objects just four inches wide. But campaigners say the technology is a sinister development that brings the surveillance society a step closer. Google admits it has already sent planes over cities while Apple has acquired a firm using spy-in-the-sky technology that has been tested on at least 20 locations, including London. Apple’s military-grade cameras are understood...

Google is everywhere, including places one might least suspect. Photographer Aaron Hobson has created a series of breathtaking panoramas highlighting some of the most remote places documented by Google Street View. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, he discusses his virtual journeys. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Hobson, you didn't photograph your latest series of photos yourself -- they came from Google's Street View service. How did that come about? Hobson: I began working on a film I was asked to direct by a producer in Los Angeles. I am unfamiliar with Los Angeles. Since that is where we are going to...

Police raid Google Korea on suspicion of communication law violation SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's police said Tuesday its investigators raided the office of Google Korea in Seoul on suspicion that the local unit of Google Inc., operator of the world's largest Web search service, has illegally collected individuals' personal information for its map service. The National Police Agency (NPA) said that its cyber crime investigation team was looking into allegations that Google Korea has violated the communications and privacy law in making Street View, a Google map service that features a panoramic view of streets. A group...

One of my recent tech tricks is to give the uninitiated a look at their home on Google Street View, the photos the search company posts on its mapping site. People are inevitably startled, and the word "creepy" comes up a lot. It's even worse in other countries that apparently have a tighter definition of privacy. Canadian officials fear the practice may violate its laws, and the British are even tougher. What's described as an angry mob arose in an English village and forced a Google photo-snapping car to leave.

Angry villagers formed a human chain to thwart the progress of a Google Street View car that was in the process of taking photographs of their homes. Police were called to Broughton in Buckinghamshire yesterday, after furious villagers blocked one of the cars, complaining it was an invasion of their privacy and that the photographs would attract burglaries. Paul Jacobs, a local resident, spotted the car yesterday morning, thanks to the distinctive 360-degree camera attached to its roof. He told the driver not to enter the village, then roused fellow residents by knocking on their doors. The driver eventually did...

A FURIOUS wife has called in divorce lawyers after spotting her husband’s car parked outside another woman’s house — on Google. She saw the Range Rover while using the internet giant’s new Street View service to snoop on a female friend’s home. The hubby had claimed he was away on business, but his missus recognised his motor immediately because of its blinged-up hubcaps. The love cheat is not the only husband trapped by Google’s controversial new 360-degree photo search which covers 25 cities and towns throughout the country. Top media lawyer Mark Stephens said: “I was talking about the Range...

Ugggh I am livid. I just found out Google did a street view of my neighborhood, not only that they got me outside in the picture. They should be required by law to give forewarning that they are taking pictures in your neighborhood.

Sorry for the vanity. I was doing some research this morning, went to Google Maps and noticed the "street view" option isn't on the menu. Has it been deleted? I know there have been some privacy issues and some communities have asked that street view not be used but has google caved and scrapped the whole thing? FWIW I think the privacy issues are mostly unfounded. If it's a public street and anyone can take a picture then google should be able to make street view available. If Google has pulled it, there could be wide ranging effects. What about...