Two more incidences of sabotage discovered - see the end of this post

Many people have voiced their concerns regarding the privacy implications of Google’s Street View service - but what if there were a way to “opt-out” of having your neighbourhood displayed online?

Yes, it appears that some enterprising resident of Fairbanks, Alaska, has worked out how to completely disable the Street View car’s onboard recording device! Even better, the process doesn’t involve any technical wizardry - all you need to do is stick a plastic bag over the top of the camera.

We can be quite sure this is a plastic bag too, because it actually says “plastic bag” on it. Unfortunately we’re not familiar enough with Alaskan plastic bags to tell you exactly what shop it’s from.

(Image rotated 180°)

The saboteurs must have been extremely quick on their feet of course, as the bag appeared without any warning while the car was travelling at speed along College Road.¹

The bag remains in place for quite a long way actually - right along College Road, onto the Old Steese Highway and halfway up Minnie Street, where it finally disappears at the junction with Clara Street.

Hopefully the discovery of this exciting technique will allow privacy advocates everywhere to finally thwart Google’s endlessly evil efforts to provide us all with really useful driving directions!

Update: It seems those sneaky Alaskans are disabling Street View cameras with anything they can get their hands on - as proven by these images captured by a vehicle in Anchorage. Thanks to Alaskan in the comments.

Update 2: Again in Anchorage, commenter Barry from Alaska caught the Street View camera wearing what looks like a tin-foil hat.

Thanks to Alden.

We’ve all been there - the camera is on us, and we suddenly feel a burning desire to impress it. Sadly, not everything turns out how we plan.

Take for example this cool customer - he spots the Googlemobile cruising down his street, and decides his patented bicycle ’skid and turn’ manouvre should be executed, maybe with the objective of sending a small puff of dust into the eyes of the unsuspecting driver.

As our intrepid daredevil starts to make the turn everything seems to be going perfectly - but suddenly the stunt falls apart, and moments later he lies in a bizarre tangle with his two-wheeled friend.

As the camera car moves on - rather heartlessly I might add - we see the boy in further distress as he presumably tries to free himself by way of a reverse roly-poly.

As the Google car continues on down the street the poor lad appears to be lying flat on his back, presumably regaining his composure. I do hope he was alright.

Thanks to Jason O and Streetviewfun.

Reaffirming my belief that the most interesting things happen when the Street-view car is around, today we can see a man getting arrested in Tampa, Florida, or at least having his back pockets searched in a rather heated way.

The cause of the arrest is unknown, but seated behind the patrol car are two white sacks which clearly weren’t there when the police officers arrived!

Sadly the word ‘SWAG’ is not visible on either, so we may have to discount bank robbery in this case. Nevertheless, this alleged crime must have been serious enough to warrant a full shake-down by the (frankly rather unfit looking) cop duo. Which might explain why they seem to have called backup to help deal with this particular miscreant…

In the past, the street-view car has captured what looks like breaking and entering and even a drug deal in action.

Thanks to streetviewfun.

Update: Google has since removed this imagery.

While capturing Street View images in Cleveland, Ohio, the Google team drove past a car in flames.

The incident that caused the car to burst into flames took place before the Google car arrived on scene, as the smoke from the fire is visible all the way up the street. It’s worth pointing out though that the frame that should have shown the wreck in most detail has been replaced with a shot taken on a different occasion.

What might have happened here?

Via Virtual Globetrotting.

See our previous posts Expensive Car Crash and Multi-Vehicle Car Accident Captured on Google Street View.

It’s been just over a month since Google added 12 new US cities to Street View, and yesterday we got new imagery in another 13 cities, and interestingly, a US national park! Here’s some of the highlights, including links straight there:

• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Anchorage, Alaska
• Austin, Texas
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Fairbanks, Alaska
• Little Rock, Arkansas
• Madison, Wisconsin
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Rockford, Illinois
• Richmond, Virginia
• Spokane, Washington
• St. Petersburg, Florida
• Tampa, Florida

Finally, Google have also added imagery for the few roads that run through Yosemite National Park, California, which enables us to see some pretty stunning scenery.

Here’s El Capitan, a 910 metre vertical rock formation that’s a popular challenge for rock climbers, and some spectacular Giant Redwoods living up to their name!

Read the full story at the Google Lat Long Blog, read more about El Capitan and Giant Redwoods at Wikipedia.

Whatever is happening on the side of the street here in Chicago, a large amount of money is definitely changing hands between this man and the driver of the car.

Submitter Sean suggested that there may be some sinister activity going on here, and his statement isn’t without basis, as this rather nifty site shows all the crime data for the area, and there do appear to be a lot of drugs offences.

Perhaps you can suggest a more legitimate explanation?

Thanks to Sean.

Update: Google has since removed this image from their database.

The Google Lat Long blog has announced that Google has just added 12 more US cities to their street view coverage, bringing their total coverage to, um.. lots. The new cities added are as follows:

• Albany and Schenectady, NY
• Boise, ID
• Juneau, AK
• Kansas City, MO
• Manchester, NH
• Milwaukee, WI
• Research Triangle Park (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), NC
• San Antonio, TX
• Salt Lake City, UT

And presumably just for today (because today is Valentine’s Day in case you’d forgotten), it seems the little Street View guy is standing on a little love heart.

Aww, puke.

It seems the Street View camera car has a habit of coming across expensive car accidents, and today we see that a white Mercedes E-Class has, rather inexplicably, managed to drive into a tree on a quiet, straight road in Minneapolis.

Judging by the bumper damage, I’m reckoning it wasn’t just a handbrake left off or a mistake whilst parking. Thankfully, the driver appears to be unhurt, and looks like she is being assisted by a friendly neighbour!

Thanks: Jalopnik.com