Stalking 2.0 - or a Streetview named Desire(able Residents)

We wrote earlier about our concerns about Google StreetView's impact on privacy, especially in the light of the Google defence of Streetview which was in essence "you don't have privacy - get used to it". Thus it is with a certain wry amusement that I read in El Reg today that:

....the National Legal and Policy Center has exposed countless Google Street View pics that detail what are likely the home, cars, and daily commute of top Google executive [ ].

Responding to Google's addled defense of Street View in an ongoing Pennsylvania court case, the privacy watchdog just unleashed a seven-page PDF that hoists [ ] by his own petard - without actually mentioning the name [ ].

Compiled in "less than 30 minutes," the report reproduces Google Street View photos that appear to reveal [ ] cars, [ ] license plates, the name of the landscaping company [ ] uses, the name of the home security company used by [ ] next door neighbor, the distance from the street to [ ] front door, and [ ] likely driving route to Google's Mountain View headquarters.

[ ] In this case being one Larry Page, Esq - but it could have been you. And you. And you. And definitely any Slebs who read us !

I wonder who will write the first Knol on this then

Sometimes I think things like this have to be done, (i) to bring home to people what the impact of their decisions can be, and (ii) to bring home to the rest of the world that "this could be you". I hope the UK ICO, who this week gave the go ahead, is watching. Maybe someome needs to do it there too, so the message is clear.