You may have spotted in this week’s Westmorland Gazette that the notorious Google Street View camera car has been spotted in Kendal. Prior to that I thought we were safe. Of course, with Kendal’s traffic system there is every chance the resulting pictures will just show the same view again and again.

Street View has been all over the news in the last week. Most of the coverage has been about privacy. Listening to the debate on the radio, I thoroughly agreed with everything the pro-privacy lobby had to say, whilst simultaneously Googling the addresses of various friends.

Oh look, here’s one of my friends doing her spring cleaning. And here’s someone I know in Birmingham emerging from his front door. And here’s my head teacher friend posing in her school playground.

All good fun. Except that some of it isn’t. The problem is, the easily identifiable chap emerging from his front door in Birmingham is a social worker. Having his home clearly visible may, conceivably, cause him problems. And the Street View car went past my friend’s playground just as the kids were in full view, going to school.

Privacy International is lodging a test case with the Information Commissioner’s Office, arguing that Google should obtain legal consent from everyone who appears in the pictures. It’s an interesting argument but I don’t rate their chances. It could take months to sort out and meanwhile the cameras will continue to roll.

For the time being, it seems we have no say in where the Street View cameras pry. So what can we do?

Well, as a cartoonist I have some suggestions, as you might expect. I wouldn’t go so far as the chap in the news last week who painted something rather phallic on his parents’ roof, in the hope of getting it on Google Maps. But we could stalk the Google cars. As soon as we know one is venturing up our street, we could stage a variety of creative tableaux.

For example, stand on the front lawn with a mallet and appear to be attacking the garden gnome. Fill the neighbour’s front garden with inflatable women. Place a life-size cardboard cut out of Lord Lucan and Shergar in your drive. Wear a striped jumper and get frozen for posterity emerging from the living room window carrying a large bag marked ‘swag’. Hang a vast sign across the front of the house, bearing the cheery slogan “Go away, Google!” (or words to that effect).

If Street View shows us all doing bizarre things, perhaps Google will get the message. Alternatively we’ll make Britain seem such an incredibly vibrant and exciting place that the tourists will flood in. Recession ends. Hurrah for Street View!