A lot of people are worried about the privacy ramifications of Google's new Streetview component of Google Maps. Basically they drive a car equipped with cameras through a bunch of streets in six major US cities, and now you can see these photos inside of Google Maps. No big deal, right? Except that the cameras show everything from girls sunbathing to a man scaling a fence (burglary? locked out?). Although it is legal to photograph anything visible from public streets, people are calling for some sort of censorship. But most articles I've read agree that there's no easy way to do this, even for Google.
I disagree.
The solution is simple -- take three pictures at different times (but with similar lighting conditions) of each street. Line them up as best as you can, then remove any element which is only in one of the three pictures. You'll get rid of all the people who're just walking by (and if you take the photos on different days, you'll get rid of any folks just sunbathing for a couple of hours), but you'll preserve the static elements (buildings, roads, infrastructure) which is the whole point of this project anyway.
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