Google Street View nearly here

Rumours have been flying around that Ireland would be the next place to fall to the roaming Google camera vans, and with the launch of a plethora of UK cities in the new UK version of Street View, this seems very likely. People, pictures, landmarks, streets and houses from 25 UK cities are now available. The whole endeavour (to date) has taken 22,369 miles of video.

Cities currently available:
Aberdeen
Belfast
Birmingham
Bradford
Bristol
Cambridge
Cardiff
Coventry
Derby
Dundee
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Leeds
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Manchester
Newcastle
Norwich
Nottingham
Scunthorpe
Sheffield
Southampton
Swansea
York

The Dutch version of Street View also went bringing the total number of countries covered by Street View to 9.

Although concerns have been voiced on a number of occasions regarding individuals privacy, Google have made several statements dismissing this, saying that they only take images and video from major roads and motorways therefore eliminating any expectations of privacy. And while Google have introduced software to blur out faces and licence plates, the question has been raised by the firm, Privacy International, as to whether they have the right to even take the images in the first place. A recent statement said, "existing case law suggests that images for commercial purposes cannot be taken without prior consent of those who appear in the images".

It does raise an interesting point. Are Google making any money from the images, do they have the right to take them, and how would you feel about finding yourself on Street View?