How Does Google’s New ‘Street View’ Get Illegal Pics?
Written by: Bryan Eisenberg
I was showing Jeffrey the new Google Street view function of Google Maps. I was showing our office when I realized that the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel was “blue.” That means you could view it in street view. I was shocked! Since 9/11, it’s very clearly and prominently indicated on both sides of the tunnel that cameras are not permitted in the tunnel. I wonder how Google gets authorization for these street view images? Or maybe they didn’t. Do you know?
Others are asking if Google is spying on their cat (who’s definitely not barking). Is this evil?
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
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Lots of potential for abuse here - I’ve been looking through the list here - http://www.streetviewr.com - lots of opportunity for getting sad at you know who..
Wired’s having a contest to find the best/worst uses of this tool. In addition to Bryan’s find, it seems it didn’t take long for people to spy on sunbathers and jaywalkers.
Google Street Maps is HOT…
So imagine for some reason that you wanted to know if tourists really rode horse-drawn “carriages” through central park. Google Maps with a new Street View option lets you do just that, and even hyperlink it:
I was wondering when the foot…
[…] Eisenberg says, We just posted on our blog pictures of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel where cameras are not permitted since 9/11 but street view […]
[…] Eisenberg says, We just posted on our blog pictures of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel where cameras are not permitted since 9/11 but street view […]
And another site to track all this stuff - http://streetviewvoyeur.com
Scenes Through the Eye of Google…
Is that someone’s cat in a living room window? And a neighbor taking out the garbage? Wait — The Battery Tunnel in Brooklyn. Haven’t cameras been banned from there since 9/11? And is that a robbery in progress…
Google Photos Stir a Debate Over Privacy…
Others pointed to pictures of cars whose license plates were clearly readable. One pointed to images captured inside the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, a controversial location for photography in this high-security era…
You know, seeing a licence plate in a picture is no different then seeing them when you’re out driving. It’s public information!
Ellbee,
It’s not a matter of seeing other people’s license plates. Sure, you can do that anywhere. It’s an ongoing homeland security measure that attempts to thwart terrorist attacks on bridges and tunnels–particularly the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and the Lincoln Tunnel post 9/11 for obvious reasons. Hope that helps!
well i did some googling and it seems some one has bought http://bannedgooglestreetviewimages.com/
well it looks like some one has bought bannedgooglestreetviewimages.com
[…] Bryan's post on Google's StreetView product and all of the related stories from Boing Boing to Wired to the New York Times is both exciting and perhaps a bit scary at the same time. […]
[…] interesting point was made by Brian Eisenberg. Did Google get clearance to photograph the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel? Since 9/11, cameras have not […]
Can you really ban pictures from a public place like a tunnel? Putting all the signs up in the world doesn’t make it illegal.
Anyone want to start a website of banned pictures? Everyone should send their pictures of the tunnels and bridges to the website.
It seems odd that they could make taking pictures of a ‘public place’ illegal.
To address concerns of privacy and for the sake of operating system competition I wrote a post on the Google Maps Zoom Feature and what it could be renamed.
I added all the best “Google Street View” here : http://www.geo-trotter.com/cat-street-view.php.
[…] problema semmai riguarda quelle foto che non dovrebbero esistere, come quelle dei luoghi in cui le riprese sono vietate per […]
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What amazes me is how many people ASSUME that Homeland Security has banned pictures of bridges and tunnels. There are NO homeland security laws currently in place that prohibit photography (except for certain military installations) - the general rule is that if you can see it you can photograph it! In New York there are laws that motorists must obey all posted signs on a bridge or tunnel. If you take a picture the charge is “disobeying a sign”. The constitutionality of those signs is highly questionable and may be challenged soon.
[…] waves — a mention in The New York Times, even — after pointing out that it lets you illegally* see inside of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel (a point which has been disputed in the […]
That is NOT the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. That is an area where the FDR wraps around the souther edge of lower Manhattan to get to the West Side Highway. There is a park above this and the drive can’t be more then 20 seconds.
Ban google street view. Have we lost our minds? arent we in a war on terror? would this be permitted on sept 12? or is the war on terror bs? ask yourself.
youtube.com/mikere
come to see the video
I checked up on an apartment I lived in a few months ago. You can no longer see my cat litter container in the window, my air conditioner is not in the middle window, there are new curtains, and my car is no longer outside. If I had a psycho stalker ex, they could keep checking these street view updates at all the places I’m likely to be and find clues as to where I am. Now anyone that knows me well can look up my old address on street view and know that I don’t live there anymore. You could probably check potential addresses of places I might be and find clues of whether or not I’m there. Or perhaps even see me outside of it. Now that is freaky. What about people in the witness protection program? I’m just saying… there’s gotta be limits somewhere.
Are you kidding me? War on terror? Post 911? Give me a break already? Propagandist b.s. and most of the u.s. has bought into the campaign. (Which is pretty darn effective, sadly.) There is no such thing as homeland security. Man, does no one read history or remember it?
Truth be known, I do know about a stalker in L.A. that did break in and hassle someone I know here, thanks to Google. Wee haw. Can you say Night Stalker? Summer of Sam? I smell another Spike Lee Joint coming on.
But the bigger question has yet to be answered, where the HELL are they getting the pics and how? And who gave the bastards permission to publish the images without consent?
This will be interesting in the courts. I wonder what will happen in the case of rape, stalker laws, and such. Google could be held accountable and liable, if at least financially.
Something perhaps worth pondering after our initial paranoia.