Google Street View Car Driven Out Of British Village

Google’s much touted Street View service faced an unanticipated obstruction after the furious residents of the village of Broughton in Buckinghamshire blocked a Google Street View car, preventing it from capturing images of the village amidst concerns that the images could be useful for burglars. 

The angry villagers formed a “human chain” to stop the vehicle from taking images of their homes, according to the reports from The Times. 

The distinctive vehicle having a tripod-mounted camera on its roof was first spotted by a resident Paul Jacobs, 43, who warned the vehicle not to enter the village and then roused his neighbours to collect a small mob and eventually forced the vehicle to leave the village. 

Expressing his concerns over how these images could become a useful tool for burglars, Jacobs said, “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”. 

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In its response to the incident, Google asserts that its existing privacy policy is appropriate, as the company have the provision to remove any imagery on a simple request. 

Google Street View service has already scaled to as many as 25 cities across the UK last month and it is extending its reach to several provincial towns and villages to present an almost complete virtual picture of the country. 

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