Not to totally hijack this, but it's a basic privacy issue that Google blurs people's faces and license plates. It doesn't always work, and they have been called to task not only for this but a whole bunch of other data they collect (e.g. filtering Gmail for key words and tracking web sites visited to deliver advertising, automatically creating friends lists on Buzz without user consent, etc.).
While license plates are a matter of public record, authorities are only supposed to use it for specific purposes (car licensing to ensure compliance with safety tests, payment of taxes, identification of ownership etc.) To use if for other purposes without due cause is problematic (for instance just tracking where a car with a particular license plate goes/visits). Just because it's publicly visible and you can search for who might own a particular plate, doesn't mean its location should be recorded. It would be like the state saying the'yre snooping on social media and keeping track of someone's opinions and they should have a right to do so just because it's freely available on the internet; in fact, gov't agencies need clear justification and purpose for data they collect, and it needs to be associated with the service they offer citizens -- they shouldn't just data mine merely because they can. How comfortable would you be with an agency looking on these boards trying to find people that indicate they aren't meeting emissions standards or have taken off a catalytic converter, etc., rather than relying on sanctioned measures (going to the DMV, having the paperwork from a mechanic indicating passing a test, etc.)
I can think of dozens of scenarios where people might not want their car's location identified and accessible by all via Google maps. How about being parked outside a mental health centre, an abortion clinic, or a bankruptcy trustee's? Or outside a strip club, or a golf club during working hours? Or at a workplace competitor's to interview for a new job? Or outside a friend's house that s/he has promised a partner to no longer visit? The list can go on and on and on. While the individual's reasons to be there may be perfectly legitimate and, indeed, quite legal, they still may not want that information public and searchable via Street View.
Take a minute to think about privacy issues -- they're eroding very fast in the name of convenience and because technology has evolved so rapidly as a result of digitization and networking that laws often aren't keeping up or corporations will flout them in their own self-interest. Look at nations like Germany where totalitarian regimes with secret police are still very much a part of living memory (whether the Gestapo or the Stasi) and they tend to take privacy issues much more seriously than we do in North America.
On a lighter note: I'm happy that '74 Fiat doesn't have a geo-locating computer device in it that constantly reports its position so that someone can unlock its doors for me from a satellite. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I do teach about Orwell's _1984_ and am keenly aware of privacy concerns.
Cheers,
phaetn
1974 CS1
32/36 DFEV; CompuTronix ign.
9.8:1 c/r; 40/80 intake cam w/ Isky springs
Vicks' SS header & adj. cam pulleys
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205/50-15s on CD-66 style rims
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