Google Streetview should shorten the time it keeps uncensored photographs, according to EU regulators. Google currently keeps snaps for a year but the EU has asked that it cut the period to six months. Google claims its current policy is “legitimate and justified”. Google vs EU: Round 2, fight!
Google posts notifications on its website to indicate where its camera-carrying cars will be cruising but the EU is concerned that Google Streetview’s pictures of real-life street scenes breach privacy laws.
Google blurs number plates and faces on Google Streetview but people often still express concern about popping up in the search giant’s snaps.
In a letter to Google, Alex Turk, head of the EU data protection agencies, said the company should announce where its camera cars will be in the national and local press as well as online.
He stated that Google should revises the “disproportionate” policy of keeping the unoriginal unblurred images it captures for a year. He also wants the firm to improve the quality of its blurring.
Images were pulled from Google Streetview when it first launched in the UK in March 2009 and was the subject of an official complaint to the UK Privacy Commissioner. Google’s had a lot of issues recently with Google Buzz privacy concerns ricocheting round the web.
Do you think Google Streetview goes too far or are EU privacy mavens overstating the problem?
Out now | £free | Google Streetview (via PA)
