>Did this cause a lot of protests in the US when it ws introduced ?.
>
>Its available in the UK now and the press seem to be seizing on it as a privacy issue.
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7959362.stm
>
>Every media outlet probably has someone trawling through every street view looking for things to complain about

I don't see why. Just because it would become unavailable to someone online (the way it was at the time the shots were taken) doesn't mean it's not available at all times to anyone who drives by. I don't see how anything that's outside your house becomes a privacy issue.

Funny, though, that the country with the highest density of surveillance video cameras would complain of the public view becoming, well, public. As long as it's only Big Brother who's watching, everything's fine, eh? What's it nowadays, ten cameras per mile of street in London?