Europe may block Google's Street View

Privacy concerns could see European regulators prevent Google from adding street-level photo images to its mapping service.

The search engine's Street View tool gives 360 degree views of hotspots in over 40 US cities. First launched in May 2007, the software has yet to be applied to European cities but Google has already started collecting images for this purpose.

Peter Hustinx, data protection supervisor for the EU, warned that the provision of these images may violate privacy laws. "Making pictures everywhere is certainly going to create some problems," he said, speaking the presentation of his annual report.

Hustinx also said he was sure that Google would take privacy legislation into account when planning the release of its products.

Earlier this year the search company agreed to fulfil a request from the Pentagon to remove selected images relating to US Army bases. Other critics have objected to the fact that people caught in Google's photos are having their images put online without their consent.

This week a blog posting from a Google employee demonstrated a software tool which aims to automatically blur the faces of people appearing in its images. The post admits that the software still needs some work, since it currently also blurs the faces of horses in New York's Central park.

See also:

Microsoft acquires Multimap

Online tools will help to expand the company's search facilities  12 Dec 2007

What next for Google?

Google has enjoyed phenomenal growth since its relatively humble beginnings, but how does the company plan to expand further?  25 Oct 2007

Mashups are beginning to take off

Next-generation web technologies have created a new way to combine data  09 Aug 2007

Estate agent offers online viewings

Property investment firm integrates Google Earth to show properties for sale  26 Mar 2007

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