By Ashley Johnson

The internet is useful for many things, you can use it for research, playing games or just browsing. The internet can also be used to spy on people. This is because; on the 18th of March 2009 Google enhanced their Google Maps and Google Earth service with their Google Street View. Finally you can look at people’s houses, as if you were standing right outside.

. Even though America has had this service since May 25th 2007, the launch of it in the UK started to raise questions. How far was this going to go, how much privacy can we have? Many people have questioned the security of these images. If you were a burglar, this service would be brilliant for planning robberies; people complained that this could be used to plan things such as terrorist attacks.

Other people complain that their face can be found on the internet! Even after five minutes of searching I managed to find some people wearing familiar clothes ambling down New Malden High street. Are people’s identities available to anybody with just the click of a mouse? People may sign up to these things thinking they are fun, when really doing this could have some serious consequences. Personally I trust Google, I use their search engine, e-mail service and their video service, but can I trust them with my identity, something which is so important to me. Because of this life may be very different, in the future will we have to go on holiday or will we just look at it on Google Earth.

Google Street View is primarily an informative service, though there are endless hours of potential fun lying within these images. I personally view Street View as very useful, but cannot help wondering where it may end up, are we giving away are identity to easily nowadays?