I’m addicted to Google Street View, writes Dan Wainwright.

I use it a bit like those Where’s Wally books but instead of looking for a bespectacled bloke in a red and white striped jumper and bobble hat I’m looking for life’s real wallies – the people peeing in the street, coming out of sex shops or caught in the middle of being arrested.

The best thing about it is it’s a 360 degree snapshot of life. It’s what that particular street in that city was doing at exactly that moment, burst bin bags and all.

It’s a chance to look at where friends and colleagues live and snigger at the state of their lawns, the pants on their washing lines and the crisp packets in their hedges.

But it seems there are people who are not as keen on this latest technological marvel.

Pressure group Privacy International has argued, unsurprisingly given their title, that Street View invades privacy.

And Michael Fraser, a reformed criminal who now works for gadget company Logitech, has warned the system is a godsend for burglars looking to size up a house, escape routes and the like before making their move.

Valid concerns indeed but when it comes to burglary I’d like to think that a proper thief would actually take the time to drive by the house a few times, maybe take his own pictures and plan his escape properly.

I imagine that the sort of burglar who would be so lazy as to rely on a picture from Google is probably going to be the sort of slob who would be unable to get through my windows unless I actually cut the frames out for him first. Chances are that will become law anyway to avoid me being sued if he cuts himself breaking in.

As for the privacy concerns I think the pressure group has bigger fish to fry than a company which already has the legal right to take pictures from the street of the outside of people’s homes.

We are currently facing the introduction of ID cards and the government wants access to more of our emails and web transactions. We already live in an age where we will appear on CCTV numerous times a day.

At least with Google we have only to click a button and report the image and the search engine giant will blur out our faces and spare our blushes. And at least with Google we can see exactly what the people watching us are seeing. It’s already more than we get every time we walk down the street.