EU concerned over Google Street View

Privacy and security issues raised

Google Maps EU Probe 0

16 May 2008 9:34 GMT / By Katie Scott

Google has already had a head-to-head with the Pentagon over some of the photographs on Google Maps, and now it seems the EU has the same concerns.

European Authorities have raised specific concerns about Google Street View, which is an extra on Google Maps which shows street-level images.

The EU's data protection agency has admitted its concerns, especially about privacy invasion whereas in the 30 US cities that have been photographed, there were worries about national security.

After discussions, Google actually removed some images from Google Street View that allegedly showed US military bases and other properties, which the Pentagon argued could be terrorist targets.

"Making pictures everywhere is certainly going to create some problems", European Union data protection supervisor Peter Hustinx told a news conference.

But he added his confidence that Google would take into account EU regs if and when it introduces Google Street View into the continent.



Comments

  • I don't know about you, but unless I knew it was a military/government building to begin with, seeing a picture of a regular looking structure on a regular looking street wouldn't tell me anything.

    ...

    Unless of course there were armed police and tanks all over the place. Then I might think it Manchester on a Friday night.

    Seriously though, isn't it more suspect to omit vast areas of land with seemingly no photographic development than to simply falsify the inherent signage in these images?     Posted by L.Rawlin, UK

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