Angry Brits chase down Google Street View car

While surveillance cameras are all over the place in Britain, villagers in southern England's Broughton region decided Google's Street View car was taking it one step too far, and chased it away.

The service, deemed invasive by some, supplies high quality photographs of houses and streets around the world, and just launched in Britain last month. This protest falls under an umbrella of concerns many citizens of the world have regarding Google, including satellite photos on Google Earth, search data tracking, and monitoring of the shopping habits of its e-mail users.

"I was upstairs when I spotted the camera car driving down the lane," described resident Paul Jacobs. " My immediate reaction was anger: How dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent? I ran outside to flag the car down and told the driver he was not only invading our privacy but also facilitating crime."

Jacobs rounded up his neighbours who blocked the road, forcing the car to retreat. Who else wants to move to Broughton?

"This is an affluent area," he continued. "We've already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks. If our houses are plastered all over Google it's an invitation for more criminals to strike. I was determined to make a stand, so I called the police."

"They felt his presence was an intrusion of their privacy," Thames Valley Police said in a statement sent Friday to The Associated Press. "When police arrived at the scene, the car had moved on."

The vehicle has been roaming the streets in Britain for months now, reportedly prompting millions of citizens to look for their own houses or landmarks online.

In keeping with their YouTube methodology, Google will remove any image by request, which can be prompted by clicking a link on the Street View site. Google's British communications chief Peter Barron has said they've received a few hundred of these so far, though some of them were already widely run in the press.

Google's feeling is the technology is useful, legal, and non-intrusive (notably, things like faces and license plates are obscured), despite the concerns of increased theft, burglary, and the like.

"All the information on Street View is the same as you would find on a property Web site or walking down the street yourself," said Google spokesman Anthony House. "[But] it's a new technology and so I think it is understandable that people will be unhappy with it."

A spokesperson for the corporation elaborated, "Embarking on new projects, we sometimes encounter unexpected challenges, and Street View has been no exception.  We know that some people are uncomfortable with images of their houses or cars being included in the product, which is why we provide an easy way to request removal of imagery. Most imagery requests are processed within hours. We take privacy very seriously, and we were careful to ensure that all images in our Street View service abide by UK law."

A Thames Valley Police spokeswoman stated there's "no evidence to suggest Google Street View is causing an increase in burglaries," but added, "however, we want to reassure residents we will be keeping a close eye on this."

With those surveillance cameras, perhaps?