Google Earth Vehicle in Sydenham
Google Earth Vehicle in Sydenham
I've just spotted a black Vauxhall Astra with a huge camera mounted on a pole about 4 feet above the car, heading down Southend Lane into Lower Sydenham. Presumably it's taking 3d images of the area, there has been quite a debate in some national papers about this, because anyone anywhere in the world will then be able to find and view pictures of your property taken from the front. I have a friend who is not on the internet, who almost went berserk at the invasion of his privacy when I took my lap-top round and zoomed in on his roof and what he thought was his totally secluded rear garden. Can't wait to pay him another visit!
Here are some photos of Google cars (with discussion)::
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/02 ... ew_spycar/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/08 ... inverness/
Admin
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/02 ... ew_spycar/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/08 ... inverness/
Admin
It's an interesting question. What's on display is on display to anyone and everyone anyway.
Before Google maps, I had a knock at the door and was asked if I'd like to buy a photo of my back garden taken from above. (Looked pretty good actually.) However, I immediately chose not to buy one as I felt a bit miffed that one and one's family could be photographed from the air in a "private" area of one's property. That was before I learned subsequently that military satellite cameras can take photos with detail of any 1 square metre.
Regrettably, we live our lives on camera all day, every day, like being in The Truman Show. Might as well get used to it I guess.
Before Google maps, I had a knock at the door and was asked if I'd like to buy a photo of my back garden taken from above. (Looked pretty good actually.) However, I immediately chose not to buy one as I felt a bit miffed that one and one's family could be photographed from the air in a "private" area of one's property. That was before I learned subsequently that military satellite cameras can take photos with detail of any 1 square metre.
Regrettably, we live our lives on camera all day, every day, like being in The Truman Show. Might as well get used to it I guess.
bensonby wrote:would't it be a sad day if we needed permission to film in public. If something is visible in public then it can, generally speaking, be photographed. I really don't understand all this debate... If you don't want to be seen then cover your house in tarpaulin and wear a burka!
Good links admin, thanks.
I can understand your point Bensonby, it's just a tad embarrassing when you may have told those friends and relations in far off places (whom you know will never visit because you never invite them anyway) that you reside in a 5 bedroom detached with gated entrance, gravelled driveway, a double garage, with a swimming pool and gazebo in your back garden, when they can now view your property and realise you are in fact in a grotty two bedroom terraced with a fish pond, a dilapidated shed and the remains of a butcher's bike in the back yard for all to see.
Well I think it's great ... though I'll have to make sure I comb my hair before I go out, or my mother will never forgive me.
I think it will be really useful when buying a house to actually be able to see those angles the estate agents don't want you to see.
(And, before someone replies sniffily that people should go and look at the houses, yes of course ... but it will save an awful lot of wasted journeys if you can see that immediately across the road is a gravel yard/bus depot/24-hour all you can eat, drive in and throw your rubbish out of your car window, burger place.)
I think it will be really useful when buying a house to actually be able to see those angles the estate agents don't want you to see.
(And, before someone replies sniffily that people should go and look at the houses, yes of course ... but it will save an awful lot of wasted journeys if you can see that immediately across the road is a gravel yard/bus depot/24-hour all you can eat, drive in and throw your rubbish out of your car window, burger place.)
It works both ways I suppose. Those second cousins who enclosed their round robin last Christmas, together with their new address as they've just moved to the outskirts of Detroit and described their latest abode as something you imagined could be second only to the White House. Imagine looking them up on Google Earth and finding them in a trailer park.
they have now excuse then when you declare that you are coming over to visit for a weekmaestro wrote:It works both ways I suppose. Those second cousins who enclosed their round robin last Christmas, together with their new address as they've just moved to the outskirts of Detroit and described their latest abode as something you imagined could be second only to the White House. Imagine looking them up on Google Earth and finding them in a trailer park.
Well, I know you said "generally", though one is not allowed to photograph childen in public and personal property property cameras if they catch photos on a public road (even though depicting a crime) are apparently not allowed as evidence. I bow down to you as a guru on such matters so feel free to tell me if I'm talking through my hat.bensonby wrote:would't it be a sad day if we needed permission to film in public. If something is visible in public then it can, generally speaking, be photographed. I really don't understand all this debate... If you don't want to be seen then cover your house in tarpaulin and wear a burka!
mosy wrote:Well, I know you said "generally", though one is not allowed to photograph childen in public and personal property property cameras if they catch photos on a public road (even though depicting a crime) are apparently not allowed as evidence. I bow down to you as a guru on such matters so feel free to tell me if I'm talking through my hat.bensonby wrote:would't it be a sad day if we needed permission to film in public. If something is visible in public then it can, generally speaking, be photographed. I really don't understand all this debate... If you don't want to be seen then cover your house in tarpaulin and wear a burka!
You are. I just Google Earthed you. It's a Homburg, mid grey shade with a black band. Bit of a stain on the front right of the brim - sholud come out with a spot of 'Vanish' on a damp cloth.
I was thinking about military installations and so on...I'm not too au fait with the ins and outs of it there...mosy wrote: Well, I know you said "generally",
Yes you are!!! - despite the moral panic perpetuated in some parts of the press...mosy wrote: though one is not allowed to photograph childen in public
*edited to add* - of course, if you are going round the swings in the local park with a camera (and without a child of your own) you are likely to be stopped by mr plod!
Do you mean that if you take a picture of a crime then it can't be used as evidence?mosy wrote:and personal property property cameras if they catch photos on a public road (even though depicting a crime) are apparently not allowed as evidence.
If so, then generally speaking they can be used as evidence - s.19-21 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act even regulate when a police officer can seize cameras/film &c. if he believes it to have evidential value.
Where the possibility of inadmissability arises is when there is a question over whether the images could have been edited or otherwise tampered with. There is a big question mark, for example, over digital images as it is very hard to prove definitavely that noone has edited it.
I feel a bit embarressed nowI bow down to you as a guru on such matters so feel free to tell me if I'm talking through my hat.
Does anyone know how I go about hacking into Google Earth's website, cut and remove the images they have taken of my property, and paste in something I feel is a little more appropriate? I thought, perhaps, with something from Sundridge Park area of Chislehurst. That would presumably leave a hole where I cut and removed the image of their fabulous property from, so I could just paste in the image of mine. In case the owner's of that property ever discover this, and start doing a virtual tour of all the streets to find where their house has gone to, I'm four or five miles away and I thought I'd get away with it for at least a couple of years. Anyway, they're probably the sort of people who'd never venture this side of Downham for fear of being virtually mugged. In the meantime, I could hack in again, virtually repaint it a different colour, add a new virtual satellite dish, a virtual extension over the garage, replace the front door with a different virtual one bearing my humble street number instead of their ostentatious house name, and I doubt they would even recognise it again as ever having been theirs! The only fly in the ointment I can see is if the council ever do a virtual tour. How would this affect my council tax?