Google Street View hmmm

So, a hypothetical cyber-stalker-type person can look up my address and see where I live. They might be able to see a blue toaster by the window in my kitchen. This has been possible for some time now, at least since I bought the toaster in March.

OK, you couldn't actually look 'up' a street online and see the dandelions growing through the cracks in the drive before the last month or so. Apart from this litter-on-the-garden type detail you could certainly get a pretty close-up aerial view, enough to see our badly-laid wiggly garden path anyway. Without using the interglobalsuperhighweb, it has been possible for years to search the electoral roll for the written record of people's whereabouts.

It's a bit like this: If you have relatives several thousand miles away that everyone would rather forget about - you know the type, hell to be with, hell to get rid of. Well, provided the Google Street View photo car thing has been up your street, these wierdo relatives can now have a closeish look and potentially gauge that you still have the same clapped-out old car that you had when you shooed them away years ago. They might learn that your new house has a funny looking spiky plant in the front garden, that your garage needs painting and, in a soul-lightening way, that if they are now in a wheelchair, access would be OK because there is a ramp up to the front door.

This is my hmmm. It stops at the front door. It's my door and it's closed unless I want it open. If anyone wants to have a steady drive past my house at say, 5 miles an hour to see these aforementioned details they can. I probably would not notice or care, (actually I might because I'm a nosy old bat). The point here is most information is available if you want to find it but it still doesn't give much insight - apart from to marketing bods - as to what the real nitty gritty innards of our lives are. Google Street View just provides pictures. Pictures for house-hunters, bored techies and for the five minutes while it's still interesting for everyone who wants to see the house where they lived when they were six.

As a business-person when I am asked to quote for any new-client work over a couple of hundred pounds I do a finance check. I can use any number of credit agencies and retrieve information, I can visit the Companies House website to make sure that people are who they say they are - and I do.

If an email plops in and I need to check out the person I can search online for their details, I can tell that yoohoo@daftaddress.com posts regular messages in the 'Care for your chinchilla' forum. I can easily see who owns a domain name, when they registered it and what other domains they run.

I can work out who called me by searching online for a phone number, this might tell me an area or an address. If I know a surname and vague address I can probably use the BT website or indeed the printed phone book to find a number and full address.

From my Google Analytics I can see who visits all of my websites, where they are in the world, what pages they look at most and how often they visit, I can even tell who their internet service provider is - clever eh?

I am not a deranged-stalker-beast. I am just always careful about who I engage with and like to know how people are finding me. As an adult human I am picky about friendships and picky about who I do business with. As an artist I find it fascinating how people connect and how in our techno-times we can be connected even if we really don't care to - I feel a project coming on. I don't think Google Street View encourages psychos either, they were there before, using less obvious methods to look at my toaster.

It's all OK anyway, in the UK we have been advised from on high that Google Street View does NOT invade personal privacy, I'm not sure I ever thought it did more than CCTV, good legs and a detailed map. Now I officially know it's my ally, I feel warm and fluffy and much more secure.

Useful links for stalkers and chinchilla lovers
Companies House
Experian credit check
The BT website
Chinchilla Care
Carla Boulton Artist
A great Web development company
A great Print design company