Google Shows You the World, and Vice Versa

A new Google Maps service that offers detailed views from the streets of major cities is provoking worries about privacy—and moving users to close their blinds. The Street View function gets so up close and personal, the Times reports, that one woman was able to zero in on her cat sitting in a window.

Google says it takes privacy seriously, but the service doesn't constitute an invasion. “This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see walking down the street," the company says. And if it captures a man standing outside of an adult bookstore or bikini-clad sunbathers, well, that's what blogs are for. (More Google stories.)