Google Street View = Spy Gadget??

Although the street view feature on Google Maps was released some time ago in the U.S., it’s only just been added to the online mapping software in the UK – and thus far reports indicate it’s creating all sorts of mischief – both for amateur spies and the spied upon.

It’s no secret that some folks kill time ferreting out people caught sunbathing naked on their rooftops (thanks Google Earth), but it seems the English have very quickly found spying applications for the new Street View on Google Maps UK as well.

The Sun, a popular daily English tabloid, reports that a woman was able to spy on her husband using the new tool. Hubby was supposedly away on business, but his snooping wife found his Range Rover (which bears recognizable “blinged-up hubcaps”) parked outside the house of a female friend on Street View. She immediately called in a divorce lawyer.

Seems a little rash seeing as the photograph was probably taken six months ago by one of Google’s fleet of camera-cars that have been making their way around Europe, capturing 360 degree shots of hundreds of thousands of streets. It’s completely plausible that wife and husband were at the female friend’s house together when the photo of the incriminating Range Rover was snapped.

Due to invasion of privacy considerations, Google does take the time to blur people’s faces before posting street view images online, but this hasn’t deterred peeping toms and suspicious wives. Whether the ‘evidence’ they find on Street View is enough to substantiate their accusations, though, remains very questionable.

image courtesy of www.1.bp.blogspot.com