14 DAY TRIAL // There are countless examples of wonderful, funny or just plain-weird photos in Street View. You may even find a photo of yourself in the online service, if you live in an area covered by Street View. It would be surprising, yes, but not totally unexpected. In fact, that’s exactly what one man in the UK set out to find. He didn’t find any of himself, but he did spot his wife and dog. And, then, he spotted them again, and again, and again, a total of 43 times he counted.
The woman happened to be out walking her dog at the same time when the Street View car was shooting at the location. Coincidentally, they also shared the same path and, since the car moved at a rather slow pace to allow the equipment to shoot and process the photos, it managed to stay pretty close.
Google's blurring technology did its job and the woman's face is not visible in any of the photos, so there's not much cause for alarm. Of course, she’s now featured in the Sun, so privacy is out the door. Still, it's not everyday you see yourself on a worldwide, and rather popular, service as Street View and definitely not 43 different times.
Street View is one of Google's most useful services, but it's also one of the most controversial. You'd think that photos of cities and landscapes can't possibly be controversial, but many believe that having photos of their house online is a horrible violation of their privacy. Of course, photos of their house and more may already be available online, but Google makes for an easy target.
Still, it's hard to say who is right in the end. On the face of it, there's nothing inherently wrong with Street View, but the fact is nobody has ever done anything like this before, so it's hard to make a completely informed judgement. And cases like this one prove that no one can really predict or understand how technologies like Street View will affect, or in this case capture, our lives.