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Google told to dump Street View images after six months

By Hani Megerisi

Posted on 26 Feb 2010 at 10:58

The European Union has asked Google to overhaul the way it captures and holds data for its Maps and Street View services.

Google's Street View - which adds street-level photography to the company's Maps service - has been a target for privacy advocates ever since it launched last year. Google blurs the faces of people who appear in Street View photography to shield their identity, but the company retains the original images for its own records.

Google currently holds on to all pictures taken by the Street View camera cars for a year. However, the EU's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party has said that it must not keep them for longer than six months.

Google needs to raise much more awareness of Street View cars going though people’s streets as there is an option to opt-out of appearing in them but no one knows about it

The firm has also been told to provide more information to residents about when the camera cars will be traversing their area, giving them more of a chance to avoid the cameras.

Google argues that it needs to hold on to the photos for a year in case its software accidentally blurs the wrong part of an image and it needs to be replaced, although the Working Party argues that “the number of false positives remains very low”.

"In Europe, we have high standards for data protection. I expect that all companies play according to the rules of the game," said EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding. A spokeswoman from the Commissioner’s office added that “Google needs to raise much more awareness of Street View cars going though people’s streets as there is an option to opt-out of appearing in them but no one knows about it”.

“Last year, we saw the same thing, when Google was keeping search data for more than six months and they changed it after pressure from the EC,” the spokeswoman said, adding that this shows the pressure from the Commission can force companies such as Google to be more aware of the privacy.

However, in an emailed statement, Peter Fleischer, a lawyer for the search firm, said: “We have done and will continue to engage with the Article 29 Working Party to demonstrate how we protect privacy in Street View and to explain our need to retain the unblurred imagery for a period of one year.

"The need to retain the unblurred images is legitimate and justified - to ensure the quality and accuracy of our maps, to improve our ability to rectify mistakes in blurring, as well as to use the data we have collected to build better maps products for our users.

“We have publicly committed to a retention period of 12 months from the date on which images are published on Street View, and this is the period which we will continue to meet globally.”

In an interview given to US TV station last year, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt angered internet privacy campaigners by saying that “if you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place”.

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User comments

So what??

EU again with their stupid privacy laws, i do not really understand why this is such a big deal. Am not sure but i do believe that the google does not make those pictures available to view by anybody other than google. Streets are public space and you can take pictures and video, but no google can't! with these laws they are going to make companies lose profits, and i am not only talking about this privacy laws, but others as well.

By mobilegnet on 26 Feb 2010

i have a photo of my street. i put it on fickr where it can stay for ever. Am i to destroy the non-shared original on my PC as its over a year old? nonsense.

By thirdbrother3 on 26 Feb 2010

The EU, for once, are totally reasonable in their request to Google. However, the places where photos can be taken should have been restricted to town/city centres, high profile places, famous landmarks and tourist attractions. If I want a photo of my house on a much visited website, I will upload one. Besides I did not give permission for Google to take a photograph of it in the first place. If I saw their car coming down my street, I would block it. Simple as.

By monsieurtechnica on 26 Feb 2010

It is not simple?

monsieurtechnica may i ask why will you do that. it would have been simple if you did not block it, if you want to block then there is something to consider, thus not simple.

By mobilegnet on 26 Feb 2010

The streets may be a public place as you quite correctly stated before, but only up to the boundary of one's property. People wouldn't like it if I had a camera attached to my car, facing people's houses taking photos of them.
Blocking the google car? I stand in the entrance of my cul-de-sac, preventing the driver from going anywhere further forward, and I wait until they ret rse out again.

By monsieurtechnica on 26 Feb 2010

Meant to say 'until they reverse out again'.

By monsieurtechnica on 26 Feb 2010

Again people we're missing the key issue here... Does having street view make it any easier to find your destination or possibly view a house you might be interested in buying? I doubt it! So really does it matter in practical terms whether street view is here to stay or not?!?! From a pure privacy point of view is there anything on display here that can't be viewed by other means...er no! So let the EU and Google waste time and money over what's neither here nor there. It keeps them in work I suppose!

By anthonysjones on 28 Feb 2010

I completely agree with a lot of statements that Google doesnt actually show anything that you couldnt simply drive past and see for yourself. The Street View service is helpful, it does make travelling easier. I've had to travel to friends houses since they've moved to different cities and being able to see the streets that ill need to take to get there is incredibly helpful. From a top-down perspective, you cant see certain things; such as a block mid-way up a street for no apparent reason. It can also be very helpful for stupidly complicated motorway systems, finding which lane you need to be in in the spur of the moment has lead to a couple of journeys up to the next junction to turn around and get back again. Having been able to see this before hand would have saved me a lot of time and fuel.

Also, surely Googles top-down satellite images are more of a privacy problem as people can quite easily see everyones back-yard and rear layout to the houses.

By deadeyese on 1 Mar 2010

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