Have you seen a strange phenomenon in Germany lately?
Google’s Street View just put some pictures on the internet, starting with some sightseeing points, and one smaller town. This town wanted to be one of the first on the map, so they invited the Google crew and served them cake.
Now, there are some people who don’t want to be featured on street view, especially if they are shown in compromising places and situations. That’s understandable, so Google blurs out the faces of the people and also automobile plates. But some people object to pictures of their houses, even if they don’t own them and just rent one apartment.
The results are pictures like these.
Actually, right now the whole picture is blacked out, it is “under review”.
Now, keep in mind, it is legal for anyone to photograph buildings from public places. Even if the Google cameras are higher than the average height of a walking person, you can be riding in a tourist bus and be on an elevated level like that.
The people requesting their houses being blurred like that – what are they thinking? Do they think they won’t get much attention? Normally it works the other way – you create curiosity in you desperate attempt to hide something.
Or maybe it is a plot to attract tourism to this town of blurred houses (remember the city leaders welcomed the Google team and pleaded to be among the first to be online in Germany).
Who knows?