Google Street View online in Canada
p2pnet news view Advertising | P2P:- Dear oh dear. Have I pissed Google off? (Chews fingers nails with worry.)
The giant online advertising company has been taking pictures of people, homes, cars, streets, you name it, and displaying them on Street View, which it’s trying to pass off as a service.
Nothing Gargle does is very far removed from its purpose in life — making billions and billions of dollars out of advertising, and anything and everything associated with it.
This does, of course, raise lots of privacy issues, which the company has so far managed to skate around.
Well, Canada is one of the most recent countries to be invaded by Gogle SnoopMobiles and to my surprise, the small town on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, where I live, isn’t included on the list of BC locations to be nakedly exposed — sorry, honoured.
They are: Cranbrook, Gold River, Kamloops, Kimberly, Merritt, Pemberton, Port Hardy, Prince George, Prince Rupert , Revelstoke, Vancouver.
Back in June, “The chances of Google employees showing up to take pictures of p2pnet’s palatial headquarters on the Republic of Vancouver Island aren’t high,” I said.
I was wrong. My wife, Liz, daughter, Emma, and myself were out walking the dog when, “Lo! — a car with a big pylon thingie on top cruised slowly by,” I posted.
Emma went running home to get her camera and I managed to snap it as it drove by the end of our street.
So why isn’t my town now being flaunted by Google for all the world to see?
Admittedly, it isn’t very large. But then, neither are Port Hardy or Gold River.
When the Gargoyle SnoopMobile drove by, I was testing the direction of the wind by holding up my middle finger.
Might this have been misinterpreted, do you think, prompting whoever makes the Include, Don’t Include, decisions to pass us by?
If so, I humbly apologise for any misunderstandings which may have arisen.
Google’s Swiss Adventure …
I hope Canada has better luck with Gargle Street View than Switzerland where p2pnet poster Marc decided to go for a virtual drive via Gogle.
He, “came across site listing Swiss abortion clinics whose clients include teens aged 16 and under,” we said, going on »»»
Any chance of these showing up on Google? – he wondered.
But of course.
This is, after all, Google Street View.
And no matter which side of the abortion fence you happen to be sitting, the last thing you want is to have your face or vehicle licence number splashed across the World Wide Web.
Below is a montage of 32 miniaturised pix clipped from Google Street View and even at these very considerably reduced sizes, some of the people might still be recognizable.
But full size, even though some of the faces are blurred, they’d still easily be recognizable to anyone who knew them. And there’d be no trouble at all with the licence plates or locations.
To be safe, we’ve done Google’s job for it,obscuring the faces in red.
You’re welcome, Gargle.
But Marc didn’t stop there, finding scores of other easily recognizable Google images showing faces car and motorcycle licence plates, locations, and so on.
And this was only Switzerland.
Also see this UPDATE – Google Canada Street View faces and plates
Stay tuned.
Jon Newton – p2pnet
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
big pylon thingie – Google SnoopMobile invades p2pnet turf, June 16, 2009
October, 2009
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October 8th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
My favorite pics (which wasn’t shown here) was the stop-action events of what clearly “appears” to be a girlfriend and boyfriend breaking-up or fighting.
The girl with her finger in the guys face, the guy holding his head, She turns and walks away and he’s still standing there holding his head, then as they both head their separate ways she starts running and he’s still holding his head in disbelief. heh captured for eternity.
Friends and family of theirs would recognize them easy.
October 9th, 2009 at 9:10 am
“I was wrong. My wife, Liz, daughter, Emma, and myself were out walking the dog when, “Lo! — a car with a big pylon thingie on top cruised slowly by,” I posted.”
You think it’s wront that your picture was taken in public without your permission and yet you regularly still use photos with people in the background, even though you don’t have their written permission to do so.
Why is it alright for you to use people’s photos without permission? What makes you exempt from the rule you’ve been pushing for Google, ever since the first Street View Article?
Apparently it’s one of those rules that only applies to others. Or are you prepared to furnish written consent forms from everyone who has ever appeared in a photo on this site?
October 9th, 2009 at 9:45 am
@ RW, “You think it’s wront ”
If you’re going to criticise, at least get it right. I didn’t say anything about my picture being taken in public without my permission. I’m complaining in very general terms about Gargle publicly displaying for commercial purposes millions of images it took without asking first.
You can come and take my picture any time you like, no worries. But if you, as a commercial company, are then going to use it as a draw to promote ‘product,’ you need to get my permission first.
Meanwhile, Switzerland isn’t alone wth clearly identifiable images being displayed. A little later, I’ll be doing a post on what’s happening in Canada.
… and here it is – http://www.p2pnet.net/story/29565
Cheers!
October 9th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I think we should get a check from google everytime a picture of my house is pulled up on “googles stalker view”
October 10th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
“If you’re going to criticise, at least get it right.”
Yes, I made a typo. It’s not the first and probably won’t be the last. I could point out the fact that you make typos on a daily. You couldn’t even get all the names and song titles correct in the Jammie Thomas playlist…
“I didn’t say anything about my picture being taken in public without my permission. I’m complaining in very general terms about Gargle publicly displaying for commercial purposes millions of images it took without asking first.”
And you accept advertising revenue and donations. The last I checked, that makes this site a commercial operation, unless you’ve gotten official government approval to register this site as a non-profit organziation. The fact that you may not be making any profit off it doesn’t change the fact that money still changes hands. Yet, you use photos of people all the time without their permission.
“You can come and take my picture any time you like, no worries. But if you, as a commercial company, are then going to use it as a draw to promote ‘product,’ you need to get my permission first.”
Not only is Street View 100% free to use, there isn’t a single ad anywhere on the page.
October 10th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
@ anonymous RW:
“Put your business on Google Maps”
“Display your ads on Google Maps”
Cheers!
October 11th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
@RW, what you stated doesn’t change any of the facts. Whatsoever.