Google Earth's Street View; a little close for comfort.

(random home in Shreveport, LA)

Yesterday a friend sent me a photograph of my house that he got using Google Earth's street view. I found it very disconcerting. I like playing with Google Earth and frequently marvel at the clear views, in some places, of people’s roofs. It’s fun to put in addresses and get a close look at someone’s neighborhood. When my son first went away to college and was a little more naïve than he is now, I had him convinced that it was real time and that I could watch him and see if he was going to class. I told him to wave when he was outside because he’d never know if I were watching him. I’m pretty sure he believed me for awhile.

Google Earth's street view, in case you are not familiar with it, is a photograph of your house as if someone is standing in the street taking the picture. You can get almost a 360 degree view. The above photograph is just a random home that I captured using Google Earth. In the picture of my house, I can see my car parked in my driveway. My driveway is pretty long and my car is parked at the top of it. I wondered if I were parked at the street if my license plate number might be visible. I find it a little creepy.

We all make different decisions about how public or anonymous we are going to be on the internet. In my case, I’ve been pretty open about my first name and have chosen to post my photograph here on my site, but specifically don’t mention either my last name or the name of my town. I have lived in the same tiny little town for more than 30 years now and I suspect, if someone knew the name of my town they could flash my picture around and find me pretty easily. I’ve “met” a lot of really wonderful people online though SimplyForties and the blogging community in general, but I think we all know everyone out there is not so wonderful. I did finally decide to go on Facebook but I remain somewhat conflicted about it due to having to use my last name.

Although we’ve had the ability, through people finder, to get information, including street addresses on strangers for a long time, the addition of an easily attainable photograph of their house is disturbing to me. Because of the privacy choices she’s made, I know the full name and town of one of my blogging “friends”. In writing this article, I used that information to look her up on Yahoo’s people search, got her street address, entered it into Google Earth and now I know what her house looks like. I thought about e-mailing the picture to her to check my information but I didn’t want to scare her. The person who sent me the photo of my house said that when he checked his nieces’ house, there she was in the photograph, outside playing with her dog!

Several years ago I had a stalker and can testify to the invasiveness of that situation. It’s very disturbing. Wouldn’t it be creepy to receive a photograph of your home in an e-mail from someone you didn't know? These street level photographs are not available everywhere. I checked the addresses of all of my family members, most of who live in much bigger towns than I. Surprisingly, my son, one of my brothers and I were the only ones who’s houses had a street level view available. I suspect the database is growing and we’ll all be there sooner or later.

Wouldn’t these photographs help someone who was planning something nefarious? Although the photographs are not real time, I suspect mine was taken last winter, couldn’t they be studied by someone who was looking for places to hide and watch? What if you were robbing a bank or a home and looking for the best place to loiter unnoticed? Thanks to Google Earth's street view, you could study the setup at your leisure. I find the whole thing pretty disquieting.

Look up your house. Is it on there? What do you think? Am I overreacting or do you find these street level photographs particularly invasive?