KEY POINTS:
There's only one way to be sure that you won't be seen in public: don't go out. And that constitutes a complete answer to the privacy geeks who lament that Google Street View, which went online in New Zealand this week, is a dangerous invasion of our privacy.
Cars with cameras equipped to record 360-degree images mounted on their roofs have "snapped" most streets in the country and posted the images on the internet, allowing browsers to see the scenery lining most roads from street level.
Most users will presumably have rushed to see what their neighbourhood or street frontage looks like (did anyone check during the US presidential campaign whether you can actually see Russia from Sarah Palin's house?). But, predictably, some are worrying about privacy implications.
They're a few years too late. Google Earth, active for some years, has allowed anyone with a decent PC to inspect aerial views of your backyard much more up-to-date than those that will be loaded biennially by Street View. And it seems a bit silly to get uptight about a static image of a moment in time on your street that would be visible, in much higher-definition and in real time, to anyone driving by.
It's called Street View for a reason. The camera isn't coming down your drive, up the steps and into the kitchen. When it does, it will be called reality television. Now there's an idea whose time has come.
