See this cow? … or, to be more precise, this bullock*?
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Great to see Google takes cow privacy seriously pic.twitter.com/ACTBpDwno6
— David Shariatmadari (@D_Shariatmadari) September 13, 2016
Yes! Bingo! That’s right: Blatantly grazing, mid-day, after calling in “sick” to the office!
Well, Google’s obviously on the side of shirking bovine, having blurred the bullock’s face in order to keep its udderly unsavory life private.
We’re used to seeing Google blur images of human faces and license plates for images on Street View.
We’ve also seen Google scrupulously protecting the privacy of its Street View images of the face of the Sphinx in front of the Luxor casino in Las Vegas.
Then too, Google has censored Thomas the Tank Engine’s face.
It’s also protected the face of a pickaxe murderer. Or, at least, it blurred the face of pranksters who set up a scenario of head-massage-via-pickaxe when they saw the Street View car coming.
But ruminants? This is the first we’ve heard of Google caring about their privacy.
The Guardian reports that the picture was taken last summer at a semi-rural meadowland area known as Coe Fen, which lies to the east of the River Cam in the south of the city of Cambridge, England.
The Street View image was spotted last week by the Guardian’s US opinion editor, David Shariatmadari.
The bullock’s face can clearly be seen as it grazes near the river River Cam on an image taken slightly further away, but Google seems to have blurred it for a close-up view.
Some of the responses Shariatmadari’s post got on Twitter:
It needed to disguise its identity! It had a restraining order against the Burger King
I wonder whose face provided the baseline for that match?
Very amoosing
Udderly ridiculous
Google teat view
You’re milking this one
That’s Daisy
A spokesman for Google smooshed a few of those and some of his own groaners into this hamburger patty of a comment for the BBC:
We thought you were pulling the udder one when we herd the moos, but it’s clear that our automatic face-blurring technology has been a little overzealous.
Of course, we don’t begrudge this cow milking its five minutes of fame.
*After what were probably thousands of letters from cattle-sexers across the UK, the BBC changed its story to reflect the fact that what we all thought was a cow was actually a bullock, which is a bull who’s had another bit blurred besides his face.
Image courtesy of Google Street View
btocher
Perhaps their cameras are smarter than we know, but accidentally snagged a typo on “buttock”? ;)
Peter
Looks more like a heifer to me
Kelson
I’ve seen Google Street View images that blurred *street names*. That seemed especially pointless.
Paul Ducklin
I’ve seen 50-limit road signs blurred. I guess they seemed like a face?
Mahhn
I think we can figure out which cow that is, since his coat is unique….. Like a hat :P
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/09/15/can-you-stay-anonymous-by-hiding-your-face/
Tom
The blurring is easily explained by technology getting confused. As a US what I find odd is that a public park has cows wandering around it. Where’s the barn? I wondered. Is Darwin College studying evolution in cows? What’s inside the small fenced in area on the other side of the path? What about cleaning up the cow patties? So the technology got it wrong, like that never happened before. There’s an Indian restaurant nearby, are these sacred cows? I need answers.
RayFallon
It’s hard to tell if it’s a cow, a bull or a bullock :-) There’s a big difference you know :-)