Google Street View's beefed-up privacy blurs cow's face

We are used to faces and number plates being obscured by Google to protect privacy for images on Street View, but animals don’t often suffer the same fate – except for this Cambridge cow.

The picture, which was taken last summer at Coe Fen, was spotted by the Guardian’s US opinion editor David Shariatmadari.

Although the cow can be seen in all its bovine glory in one image near the river Cam, Google appears to have blurred it for a tighter crop.

The search giant admitted its technology may have been a little overeager.

A spokesperson for Google told 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.”

Shariatmadari’s tweet has been retweeted more than 9,000 times – with plenty of cow jokes among the replies.

The cow picture has echoes of an image released in May by West Midlands police of three lambs being transported in a Ford Galaxy people carrier.

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Officers spotted the unusual cargo in Yardley, Birmingham, and pursued the vehicle, which hit a parked car.

Three men abandoned the Ford and its cuddly cargo, but were arrested after a search of nearby gardens. One was found up a tree and another in a conservatory.

The three lambs were rehomed at a farm in Sheldon while officers attempted to trace their owners.