It is very annoying….

[gerarddwatts]

I usually look at hotels on street view before booking....can usually get a good idea about the neighbourhood, parking etc. Generally a useful thing, and saves having to make a knob of oneself asking if particular establishments are 'biker friendly' and such bollocks....

 

[wilbjr21]

Sorry, I don't get it.
It should be a new experience, not reliving a virtual tour.

The first time I rode over the Gran St Bernadino pass in 1970 or 71 on my Guzzi Le Mans, 2 up with camping gear, most would think they had stumbled upon an off-road section. Don't get me wrong, I don't want it like that now, but what has happened to peoples sense of adventure and going into the unknown?

That's all very well if you are just bimbling around by yourself - do it myself. Only yourself to please.

If you are planning to go with a group of friends with an objective to the trip its not the same.

That's when Streeview is useful.

Two different scenarios.

 

[Rasher]

Well Streetview is progress and we can't do as we did in those days of yore in Europe.

As wessie has pointed out its nice to be able to get an image and locale of where you think you may have a stopover.

I did this for a new Etap hotel in Berlin (when Streetview was available) and it saved a lot of angst as we found it straightaway.

Also handy to spot check some of your route before you lead all your bikermates on a day long slog on crappy single track - although not certain they have much of that, but it has saved me from a few poorchoices, or allowed me to choose the better of two roads when trip planning.

As others state, also handy to check out the locale of your Hotel, does it look nice from the outside, where might you stick your bike, what's the area like etc.

 

[Two wheels good]

Well done Germany for refusing to allow Google do whatever it wants.

Streetview camera unnecessarily high peering into private property, stealing wi-fi account data (oh but it was a rogue programmer), not pixelating faces or number plates until forced to.
Launching google glasses and expecting the public to roll-over without a murmur.
I expect there are many people in other countries who would like the right to demand images of their property be removed or pixelated on Streetview.

PS Other non-tracking search engines are available e.g DuckDuckGo

 

[Wapping]

He’s right of course, the views of Cork are shocking….

Bits of it (whisper this bit) even look like Essex

 

[Redboots]

That's all very well if you are just bimbling around by yourself - do it myself. Only yourself to please.

Probably this.
Never been with a group. Two others, max, but usually one other or me Jack Jones.

When I went on a ride, in my underpants, to... nah, fuckit, I still don't get it

 

[Wapping]

This picture shows how incredibly isolationist the German speaking position is:

Every inch of their neighbours has been mapped. That simple fact alone means that there must be millions upon millions of people who do not complain or even think that their privacy has been violated or their ‘rights’ trampled on. Given that some bods will dream up every excuse under the sun to moan about something, take a contrary attitude (just because they can) or regurgitate every last conspiracy theory they last swallowed, the silence on this one is deafening.

I read that things are starting to change. Apple, who are creating their own version of Google street view, have reached agreement with cities in Germany to produce 3D maps and the world - unsurprisingly- hasn’t stopped.

It would be interesting to hear what the good burghers of Itzgrund, Gnadau or Auerbach in der Oberpfalz really fear.

 

[wessie]

the article you nicked that image from https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/germany-street-view/ is amusing - Germans fear someone seeing their front door but have no worries about wandering about showing off their front bottom or knob in public,

 

[Wapping]

Strange lot, the Hun.

 

[John RTW]

This one always makes me chuckle. Maybe his Mrs was away for a few days.

https://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2022/03/31/google-blur-entire-house-on-street-view-after-man-caught-masturbating/

 

[Two wheels good]

He’s right of course, the views of Cork are shocking….

What's surprising is how complacent many people are about their privacy and trusting of Big Tech. Even to the point of being willing donors in return for such a convenient "free" service.

Speaking of Cork, location of Apple's European headquarters.
A while back Apple repeatedly denied it was listening to user voice recording (e.g. Siri). It was only meta data, machine learning, system improvement, blah.
Then it was revealed that a team of contractors at the site were tasked with listening to recordings. Cue Apple's back-tracking and evasions and the team was supposedly disbanded.

Bits of it (whisper this bit) even look like Essex

Probably next-door neighbours back in Pangea

 

[Two wheels good]

This picture shows how incredibly isolationist the German speaking position is:

Every inch of their neighbours has been mapped. That simple fact alone means that there must be millions upon millions of people who do not complain or even think that their privacy has been violated or their ‘rights’ trampled on. Given that some bods will dream up every excuse under the sun to moan about something, take a contrary attitude (just because they can) or regurgitate every last conspiracy theory they last swallowed, the silence on this one is deafening.

I read that things are starting to change. Apple, who are creating their own version of Google street view, have reached agreement with cities in Germany to produce 3D maps and the world - unsurprisingly- hasn’t stopped.

It would be interesting to hear what the good burghers of Itzgrund, Gnadau or Auerbach in der Oberpfalz really fear.

A quick web search informs me that many countries not just Germany took issue with Google's data harvesting, US, Spain, Czech, Italy.
I think it's entirely reasonable to expect faces and number plates to be pixelated on Streetview; something Google had to be persuaded to do.
Also resonable to be able to request other images e.g. a property be removed.
But I don't see privacy concenrs as solely a Google or Streetview issue. Facebook and Cambridge Analytica anyone? Big Tech needs to be kept in check.

One other point.. In the earlier more idealistic days of the Web the working group considering ownership of user data agreed that users should own their data. Then Google later discovered just how valuable the data was.

 

[Wapping]

Simple question: Are the roads, large, small and those millions of miles in between, available to freely view in America (USA), Spain, the Czech Republic and Italy, without causing undue distress, murderous intent or an unnatural rush towards the tin foil shelves in the supermarket?

Yes or no, will do.

 

[Two wheels good]

Tech companies should be allowed do what they want as long as the result isn't murderous intent.
Answer: No

Sellers of motos on this site who conceal a reg number (or their faces) are part of the tin-foil hat brigade?

 

[Wapping]

Sellers of motos on this site who conceal a reg number (or their faces) are part of the tin-foil hat brigade?

Bods who pixilate their number plates - as ‘bad men’ monitor the site - are as mad as a bag of rabbits. What is it that they fear exactly?

If I were a ‘bad man’ I’d just walk along any motorcycle bay or wander along to any bikermate must do meet-up cafe (where bikermates gather for brew, scran, to meet likeminds and to take snaps of other bods’ motorbikes) and take a picture of the bikes with my phone. If I wanted to stay warm and maybe get a free coffee, I’d wander into any secondhand bike seller’s shop. It’d be a lot easier than ploughing through pages of shite on UKGSer to find a plate to clone. If I were a ‘really bad man’, I’d also use the walk to find unsecured bikes to steal; two birds with one stone, as I believe the expression is.

A sixty second skim through Street View or Google Earth shows that very, very few sites (in the form of business premises or private houses) around the globe are pixilated; we can therefore safely assume that the overwhelming majority of the world’s people are not in the slightest bit bothered that their house, business, the M1 in Northamptonshire, Pall Mall in central London or some obscure minor D road in France or Ireland is shown in glorious high resolution. I look forward to the day when the two German speaking nations change their arcane privacy laws (the Stasi having closed their shop long ago) and embrace Street View with all the help and sometimes even joy that it has brought millions upon millions of others around the world…… all without the sky falling in and Alcan’s shares not hitting a record high.

That Tossers on UKGSer sometimes obscure or hide their own faces, is a public service, to avoid frightening children and small animals. Long may it continue.

Just out of vague interest, have you had Google pixilate your own house in Cork on Street View?



PS Those junction signs that now pop up on your Garmin, were generated from Google Street View images and inserted into the mapping. Just one of the many positive byproducts of Google’s work.

PPS You didn’t answer the simple yes or no question I posed. You answered a different question of your own choosing, which (in part at least) I can agree with.

 

[Rasher]

Many of the same people who complain about this invasion of privacy probably have a Facebook account / Fitbit / use Gmail / amazon account / netflix etc and already have almost every aspect of what they do, who they are, who they interact with, what they watch (online and on TV) where they go, what they buy etc known by these tech companies.

Not to mention the (lack of) security of government systems, so the good guys, the bad guys and the in between guys all know pretty much everythign about us.....

...And if you have an Alexa they even listen to every word you say.

Streetview gives them very little useful private or personal information, one of the least bothersome aspects of big brother / big tech IMHO.

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

I always thought it was good that they don't allow it.
Makes you go and look for yourself. You know, like people used to.

I don't see the point of looking at everywhere you want to go. Live a little. Take a risk.

One cannot disagree with that

 

[Wapping]

Many of the same people who complain about this invasion of privacy probably have a Facebook account / Fitbit / use Gmail / amazon account / netflix etc and already have almost every aspect of what they do, who they are, who they interact with, what they watch (online and on TV) where they go, what they buy etc known by these tech companies….. Streetview gives them very little useful private or personal information, one of the least bothersome aspects of big brother / big tech IMHO.

One cannot disagree with that.

That they’ll probably use Google to tell them how to get from A to B to C for their day out and be thankful that the software will offer up maybe more than one way of doing it, goes without saying. That they’ll also use the same Google search engine to find a hotel, cheap tyres, the recipe for beans on toast, a new car and the weather in Norwich in July and January, will mean that they close their eyes to the gross invasion of ‘their’ privacy that they have suffered.

 

[Khulu]

It must be me then. Old-fashioned.
Mostly, the only thing I plan a final destination and that doesn't always happen.
How I get there is open to all sorts of deviations and stops happen when I feel I have had enough for the day, how the time is going or its just a nice place to be.

I do the very same as you.

 

[Wapping]

For solo travellers such as myself, ‘Going to have a look’ is always easy to do, as is “Wing it, mate”, the oft heard battle cry of the Übertourrer on these pages.

How often though does a recommendation, often couched in the vaguest terms, turn up from bods on this forum, to use the D456 “Cos it’s fookin’ ace, mate”; having the ability to look at it, see what it looks like and maybe take a note or screen shot of it, can be vaguely interesting.

For those organising jaunts, however informal, having the ability to look at what’s on offer is often a godsend. I have used it to look along a country route, using roads I have never been down, to find what is maybe the only cafe for 45 miles and mark it. When you have six bods behind you, all wanting their pee / fag / cup of brew break, knowing where a cafe is sometimes very handy. That you can also appear as some sort of godlike genius, is also quite rewarding in itself.

Of course if someone has no curiosity at all as to what somewhere looks like, unless you go and see for yourself (preferably on your own) then Google Street View is of no interest at all. Though I’d bet a penny to a pound that bods do have a peek sometimes, when nobody is looking and the curtains are tightly drawn.