Mob says no to Google Street View

Jake Widman
Friday, 03 April 2009 02:55

Your IT - Home IT

Angry residents of Broughton, England, blocked the Google Street View car that was photographing their village and forced it to abandon its quest.

The brouhaha started when resident Paul Jacobs noticed the car with the special camera starting to enter the village. “I was upstairs when I spotted the camera car driving down the lane," said Jacobs. "My immediate reaction was anger; how dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent?" (Photograph of Broughton below.)

 Jacobs told the driver to stay out of town and then proceeded to rouse his fellow residents, who formed a human chain to block the Googlemobile. One of the villagers called the police, who confirmed that “A squad car was sent to Broughton...to reports of a dispute between a crowd of people and a Google Street View contractor. A member of the public had called us to report that he, along with a number of others, were standing in the middle of the road preventing the car from moving forwards and taking photographs. They felt his presence was an intrusion of their privacy. When police arrived at the scene, the car had moved on."

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