Data Protection Concerns Over Google´s Street View Service

Last week saw the UK launch of Google's Street View service, the Google Maps tool that currently allows users to search locations in 25 UK cities and towns and browse 360-degree street-level views. Google has spent over a year capturing its Street View images using customised camera cars, covering a distance of more than 22,000 miles. Despite using recognition software to blur registration plates and the faces of those captured on Street View, the press has reported that the technology has not worked in all cases and that Google has had to remove hundreds of images following complaints from those individuals who are identifiable. The Information Commissioner's Office ("ICO"), the UK data protection authority, has been called upon by privacy campaigner Privacy International, to take action against Google under the Data Protection Act 1998.