RSSAmid controversy, Google Street View gets approval in UK
By Tim Conneally | Published July 31, 2008, 6:40 PM
Despite strong apprehension from EU legislators toward Google's Street View mapping technique, the UK Information Commissioner's Office has reportedly found Google's privacy safeguards acceptable and will allow the company's roving 360 degree cameras to record British streets for its mapping service.
The level of detail captured on Google Maps Street View has caused a great deal of concern among UK privacy advocates, some of whom feel the service breaks data protection laws.
That sort of concern is not limited to Europe, as American advocacy groups and individual citizens have repeatedly voiced similar complaints. Even the U.S. military has had to push Google off its property.
However, thanks to automatic identity obfuscation techniques (aka blurring of faces and license plates) and the ability for users to have their images removed from street level coverage, the EU's Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx expressed confidence in Google's data protection.
That confidence was echoed by the Information Commissioner's Office this week, which said, "It is clear that Google are keen to capture images of streets and not individuals."
Why is this such a big deal? The UK is covered in CCTV cameras already, this actually seems *less* invasive than that.
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They're called "Curtains".
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|I don't see the problem here. They have the same rights as any other photographer on the street - they can happily shoot away so long as they aren't invading privacy.
When you're walking in the street there is nothing to stop people taking a photograph of you because it's classed (obviously) as a public place.
So what if there's a photo of you somewhere on Street View, if you're that fussed about a privacy "invading" photo being taken of you in a public place, why not hide when you see one of their Cam-Cars coming along, they stand out like a sore thumb making them pretty impossible to miss.
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|This is no big deal as there is no privacy issue when using a camera shooting everywhere.
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|gets approval - 31 July!
so why then been on British streets this month without approval taking images as they have been doing it already in the UK (before todays approval). normally if you do something without approval or prior to approval it is wrong - e.g. if i built a house extension before being given approval or the proposal being discussed and the decision the go ahead then i am doing wrong - Google has therefore also done this!
Bristol, Bath, Birmingham, Cardiff and London has been done prior to todays approval/ agreement
My hometown Bristol's turn was 16-18 July and here is the proof they jumped the gun without consent. i wonder if they told the ICO they were doing it - well it might be doubtful otherwise the decision might been different (unless Google brought them off *laughs*)
http://www.thisisbristol...312-detail/article.html (2 weeks ago)
http://www.thisisbristol...987-detail/article.html
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|everything you do, that is not against the law, it is already approved.
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