DailyTech - Google Denies That Its Street View Car Killed a Donkey in India

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Internet Google Denies That Its Street View Car Killed a Donkey in India
Jason Mick (Blog) - January 16, 2013 3:15 PM

33 comment(s) - last by Litzner.. on Jan 18 at 11:46 AM

(Source: Dreamworks)

Some believe donkey may just be resting, not dead

The internet was abuzz when Google Inc.'s (GOOG) "Street View" cars -- camera equipped vehicles engaged in capture a massive street level photographic view of the world's streets -- captured images of a donkey lying in an Indian street. The donkey looked badly injured or possibly dead, and the car tracks in the image looked somewhat like the Google car might have struck it.

But Google is firing back, insisting that it did not hit the donkey. A Google spokesperson is quoted as saying, "Our Street View teams take the safety of people and donkeys very seriously."

Some commenters sought to dispel the heated debate, arguing that the donkey might not be dead or dying at all, but merely resting in the street. They point out that it could have walked out and laid down in the road after the Google Street View car came by.

_{Some folks are upset about images of what looks like a dead donkey that were captured by a Google Street View car in India. [Image Source: News.com.au]}

Google Street View cars have not always been popular in guest nations. The cars have been chased out of some towns, and Google has admitted to using the cars in an illicit project to collect data from open Wi-Fi networks. And many, many nations have expressed concerns about the privacy of individuals photographed by the passing cars.

Last June the city of Bangalore kicked out the Street View cars for an interesting new reason. The city's police complained that Google's highly detailed images could be used by terrorists to help plan their attacks. The state capital was hit by deadly terrorist bombings back in 2008.

Sources: News Australia, DNA India