It provides not only information on buildings and vehicle types, but also a detailed look at the surroundings, so criminals can see a house's structure plus escape routes without actually going there to look at it, making it easier to commit crimes.

I would never have thought of that myself…

Just because something can be abused by criminals is no reason to demonise it or (because you can see where this is going) take it away from the vast majority who are using it benignly.

Google Maps and Street View are amongst the very best things that internet technology has given us. They are enormously helpful to so many people.

So can other maps, and a simple scouting of the area, not to mention those ridiculously outdated neighborhood housing maps that including people's names on the houses on them. You know what else it does, though -- helps people easily find where they want to go, and even just allows people to see what things look like in other cities and nations across the world.

There is nothing wrong with recognizing the negative side of something, that doesn't automatically means it should be discarded or corrected right away, everything has the possibility of being abused. By recognizing this downside of the technology something may be done to mitigate it in the future, much more dangerous is to pretend this could never happen.

I find Google Street extremely useful, especially with the Japanese street system and even the lack of names and numbers sometimes on houses. I always use to see the location I am going to visit so when I get there it is easy to navigate.

Even twice found me in it. That's a laugh.

Most criminals are too stupid and anyway they only burner phones, not smartphones.

Well, cancer drugs have negative side effects. Should we stop using them? I always use Google Street View when going to meet friends at a place I've never been. Very useful.

When I was young(er), and there wer no carnavs, no google maps, the only way to find get to the house of the girl with whom you are having a date with, was those paper made maps..... but then maybe thieves and delincuents did not have the means to get a city map (sold in every kiosk, bookshop, comic stand, supermarket, etc.) with a price of USD 3 max..)

Yes, a great explorer, he obviously ‘found out’ something very ‘new’, which is called dual use and has been known since stone age, when the first human like creatures used stones for working on materials as well to beat or kill others, long before the usage of knives, already then used for cooking or killing and nowadays rockets for space research or atomic bombs and the same for this one here, Google Earth , street view, and so on and on.

I use it quite often, especially before I travel somewhere, but most interesting to me is that a few years ago I checked the satellite view of my own home and saw myself washing the car in the driveway. Weird, but fun.

So what is he thinking, that Japan should go back to the days (that I remember well) of giant map books we carried in the car before GPS and digital maps and spending time to meticulously plan a trip so we knew to turn at the little street after the liquor store, then turn again at the fourth street on the left before the rice field, then right at the street before the railroad tracks?