These days, Germany is buzzing with the discussion surrounding the activation of Google’s Street View service for our country. Personally, I like the service – I love to digitally roam around San Francisco, for example. I personally have no privacy concerns – it is, after all, only a picture of the facade of my house. Something everyone walking down my street can see. So people can now also see my house when they digitally walk down my street. The net, in my opinion, is also part of the real world.
However, I can understand when people have concerns regarding Street View and do not want their house to be part of the service. I do not share their concerns, but I have to respect them. There are people (of course) who do not share this respect for others – and want to take pictures of houses not included in Street View and connect the images with Geodata services. Not cool, Jens Best et.al., not cool at all.
Thoughts?