Luxusvillen von Mafia ausspoiniert (Mafia spies on luxury villas)
Recently NORC released a Street View type service for several towns in Austria. It is a nice (if basic) web app, but it is a pity for them that the Google Street release in Austria is imminent.
As always we can expect some cheap journalism around privacy issues like this one, but my local free paper Tiroler Woche have surpassed themselves with a journalistic extravaganza on NORC’s application. The leader starts:
Luxusvillen von Mafia ausspioniert. Ostmafia hat Innsbruck im Visier. Per Mausklick koennen sich Ostbanden einen perfektem Ueberblick ueber Innsbruck verschaffen.
Tiroler Woche Do, 15. April 2010
Which basically translates as something like: ”Mafia spying on luxury villas. Eastern european mafia have Innsbruck in their sights. With a mouse click eastern bandits can get a perfect view of Innsbruck.”
So the fear of burglaries is standard in any Street View story, but the Eastern European Mafia sounds impressive. The link? Well NORC is based in Bucharest so they must of course be Eastern European Mafia.
What a journalistic masterstroke, combining privacy fears, crime and Xenophobia all in one story.
