Google's Street View captures the moment a drunken Aussie keeled over outside his home
By Richard Shears
11th August 2008[/align]
A man who fell asleep in a drunken stupor on the grass outside his home was horrified to find his embarrassment posted on the internet. He had been drowning his sorrows over the death of a friend and collapsed after climbing out of a taxi. As he slept off his excesses, a car-mounted video camera passed by to record pictures of the street for Google's StreetView website. Within days a photographic record of the neighbourhood and its unusual presence was available for worldwide viewing.
The new Google service has been at the centre of controversy over claims it represents a breach of privacy. But the latest victim, who gave his name only as 'Bill', is not planning an official complaint.
'I'm not too happy about it' said Bill. 'I mean, I wouldn't have been there in the state that I was in, but I wasn't really thinking there would be someone driving by with a video camera on the roof filming me, either,' Bill, 36, said from northern Australia, where he is working with a fishing company.
'What do you do when you lose a mate like that?' he said of his pal, with whom he had been planning a motorbike holiday around the island of Tasmania. 'I know what he would have done if I left - he would have partied, too. That's what I would've wanted him to do so that's what I did with some friends.' Bill said he accepted he could not expect to have complete privacy in a public street, but he questioned whether his embarrassing moment should be broadcast over the internet.
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Funny and sad at the same time - where's that ambivalent emoticon!
