Internet intrusion

The volume of detail available at the touch of a computer button means that this will be the most informed generation ever, in spite of continuing concerns here about academic standards.

However, in pushing back the frontiers of knowledge and learning, there is a danger that aspects of the internet, like Google Street View, become so obtrusive and all-encompassing that they actually pose a security risk – and provide invaluable information to potential burglars or snoopers.

Never before has so much information about individuals been held by officials, an inevitable consequence of the "surveillance state", but

is it really necessary for every street to feature on the internet in such fine detail?