Eggstraordinary
Residents of the German city of Essen who chose to opt out of Google Street View have incurred the wrath of some ‘anti-privacy vandals' and have had their houses pelted with eggs.
According to the local German newspapers as well as egg attacks some houses have had the words ‘Google's cool' pinned to their doors for choosing to appear blurred on Google's Street View maps, the BBC reported.
Given Germany's tricky history when it comes to privacy and censorship Google allows people to opt out of its Street View mapping service before pictures go live- a condition imposed by the German government as Google's controversial Street View cars hit German streets this month.
The German government has recently told Google and other online mapping services to stump up some guidelines on data protection or deal with the German government's market regulations.
The search giant has been swift to condemn the vandals' actions and reportedly said in a statement: "We respect people's right to remove their house from Street View and by no means consider this to be acceptable behaviour."
It is believed some 250,000 Germans have requested that Google blurs images of their houses.
Since starting to document sites in Germany and going live, Street View has apparently captured a series of very strange goings on including a naked man in the boot of his car on a driveway in Mannheim and someone giving birth in a Berlin street.
Both ‘sightings' have raised questions over what on earth was going on and in the case of the birth, whether it was staged.
