Google Streetview

[Smokey©]

"City officials in Nanaimo plan to use the online Street View service as a time-saving tool to help them investigate bylaw-related complaints."[/I]

City officials are not always as smart as they think and this response from them shows that the report card recently done by the Nanaimo Bulletin is fairly accurate. As someone told me yesterday, it is quicker to walk down the street then to click through google views one click at a time. The Nanaimo City Map has a birds eye view of every single property in Nanaimo (at one point they had two different years versions available and that is what John Ruttan might have thought they were talking about. It is owned by the City of Nanaimo and is a far better tool for checking out improvements done to property..

It's not hard to figure out. If you have a picture of a house from 1 year ago and you then go look on Google maps and there is something new built in the photo that was not there a year ago, then there is something new on the property. The pictures of our house were taken last August. There is nothing illegal on our property and that is not my issue. My issue is that all this was done without my knowledge or consent. Some people probably find it rather amusing. I just want off the bloody thing. It's clear to me that others have looked at the information, as I would not had known about this if it were not for my sister searching for this information after reading in the paper that Google street view was in Nanaimo. Also, I just noticed that the senior (an 87 year old woman) down the street from me is also shown in full view on google maps watering her plants in the summer sunshine. Nice!

I thought there were some privacy issues at first when I heard about this a few years ago, then I realized that everyone has the same view of my house (well multiple views as their is more then one view from various parts of the road in front of my house). It is better to be shown on google views then a snap or twenty taken by someone unknown to any of us of our houses, not knowing what they took a photo of or for what reason. I have gone down many streets on google view and have yet to see a licence plate or a face I could identify. Sure I recognized some people but only because they were standing in their own yard. I even recognized one city official because he is wearing his favorite jacket.

[fitz]

Really, I think maybe you might want to try that. I live at X have an X car in the driveway with plate ### and I lts my licence or bank card or whatever. If you know what to say it wouldn't be difficult

Unfortunately, I have had to replace my ID at one time, and it was awfully difficult. There are requirements for "Primary" and "Secondary" ID's (http://www.icbc.com/driver-licensing...riables._frag_) -- and your license plate number and address have no value as far as ID goes.

[nanaimoboy]

I just got this email from google. I removed the web link google sent me.

Hello,

Our records show that you recently reported an image within Google Maps Street View. This image has been removed from our service and will disappear within the next 24 hours.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and appreciate your patience while we dealt with this.

If you still see the image after 24 hours, your browser's cache may cause the issue. Please clear your browser's cache and check the image. To clear the cache, please check the link below.

http://[LINK REMOVED]

Regards,
The Google Maps Team

Ok, this looks good. It says the image should be down in about 24 hours. They still have another 2 emails to deal with from me pertaining to my request for removal. We'll see if they do this. Should be interesting to know what the results of this will be.

[Wyatt Earp]

Give them some time and let us know.

[nanaimoboy]

Give them some time and let us know.

Google has now gotten rid of two of my images. But I found another of me from a different angle and reported that one too. Again my face is not blurred out.

My car is blocked right out. In fact when you zoom down the street, the screen goes black and says that the image has been removed. Nothing at all can be seen.

So the process does seem to work. Or at least it is working for me. I have two more images need to come down.

It's nice to see a giant company listen to the concerns of ordinary people, especially in a timely fashion. Maybe google doesn't suck after all