Coming to a trail near you

We are all used to the Google vans driving around the country, mapping our neighborhoods for its "Street View" application.
But now Google Maps is expanding to biking and hiking trails: a Google employee on a tricycle actually rides around to snap the same wide-area views as the vans.
"Much of the world is inaccessible to the car," says Daniel Ratner, a Google senior engineer who designed the trike. "We want to get access to places people find important."
So far, only a bike trail in Monterey, Calif., is up and running but Google right now has cyclists out now in California, Italy and the United Kingdom. The company says to look for hiking and biking images from those locations over the summer — along with shots from US theme parks.
There were many complaints about Google invading our privacy with the unblinking eyes of its cameras, but Stephen Chau, a product manager for Google Maps, says that what the Google cars picked up photographically was no different from what any tourist would see on vacation.
"We show images that are taken from public streets," he says. Chau says the complaints about the product are minimal considering its usage, and many people just have an initial misunderstanding. "We have tools to automatically blur faces, if they show up, and license plates."
Additionally, homeowners who object to their homes being shown can contact Google and request removal. Wonder if the same applies for any disgruntled squirrels on some of these bike trails...