Privacy group calls for Street View shut down

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 24 Mar 2009 at 08:37

Privacy advocates have made an official appeal to the Information Commissioner's Office to shut down Google's Street View service.

How easy is it to vandalise Street View? Find out here

Street View - which launched in the UK last week - provides street-level photography of major cities, allowing you to take a virtual walk around town.

The service automatically blurs faces and license plates, which was one of the stipulations laid out by the ICO before it could launch. However, Privacy International claims the software has left many people identifiable and thus fallen short of this requirement.

"We're asking for the system to be switched off while an investigation is completed," Privacy International's director Simon Davies tells the BBC. "The Information Commissioner never grasped the gravity of how a benign piece of legislation could affect ordinary lives."

The ICO says it will rule on the request "shortly", but Google is confident the data watchdog will find in its favour.

"The ICO has repeatedly made clear that it believes that in Street View the necessary safeguards are in place to protect people's privacy," says Google in a statement.

"The fact that some people have used the tools in place to remove images shows that the tools work effectively... Of course, if anyone has concerns about the product or its images they can contact us and we look forward to hearing from them."

"The truth is that this is an empty and entirely predictable publicity stunt by an organisation that is far from impartial when it comes to the issue of Google and privacy," concludes the statement.