We all like to visit Google's Street View to look at where we live. I checked out my house and discovered that I could see my washing hanging on the line in the back garden (I regretted not pegging it out more artfully). So then I looked up my friends' houses to see their laundry on display to the world, or their kids' toys on the front lawn or some other manifestation of domestic life. But it seemed that I had been uniquely singled out.
Street View has now reached Antarctica. Have a look. There are penguins, ice, rocks. Tourists, too, some looking interestingly ghostly when they moved as the camera clicked. And a nice ship lying at anchor. No streets, though. Which makes you wonder, why did they go? Because it's there, I suppose.
Google's Street View is one of those splendidly modern things that seem to have no practical purpose but are fun. In fact, Google is suspected of hoovering up vast amounts of personal data as its cars go around photographing our neighbourhoods. They do this by capturing information about unsecured wireless networks. Apparently, Google has our passwords and e-mail addresses. It's the sort of thing that sophisticated criminals like to do - find our unprotected Wi-Fi networks, hack them and steal our identities.
But Google says it has not stolen our identities and that it never wanted this data and that it stole it "accidentally". You know how that goes - you pop into the bank to get some cash and the next thing you know you're speeding off down the road with bags and bags of bullion on the back seat and the police giving chase. You never intended to steal the gold, it just sort of happened by itself.
The Germans are not very happy about all this (when are they ever?). They don't like Google's Street View and are saying so loud and clear. So loud that Google had to offer people an opt-out. And Germans have opted out in droves, requiring Google to do lots of expensive work pixillating people's flats and houses into the desired anonymity before putting them on the internet.
Czech people prefer to keep their data to themselves as well. They have stopped Google collecting any more images because they claim it may be illegal under Czech law.
Another headache for Google. It had better hope that penguins have no qualms about privacy.
