Google: Street View also in Germany by the end of the year
Google plans to launch its Street View service in Germany by the end of the year. The service, which provides a comprehensive view of streets and buildings, will initially be introduced in 20 cities between Munich and Hamburg.
Tenants and homeowners will be given the opportunity to make their building unrecognizable beforehand with an online form, the company said Tuesday. This option will be made available at the beginning of next week, it said. In addition to the online objection, one can also object to the publication of the recordings with a letter. According to Google, the image of the building in question will then be rendered unrecognizable using a "blurring" technique, so that it can only be seen in shadowy form.
In Germany, the plans for Street View had led to fierce criticism. Citizens fear that the service could be misused for criminal purposes, such as burglaries. The criticism became even louder after it became known in May that personal data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks was also recorded and stored by Google during camera movements for Street View. The company subsequently spoke of an error. The data was inadvertently recorded due to a programming error in the camera cars used for Street View. The service was therefore banned in Austria.
In Switzerland, Google is currently not allowed to publish any new images. However, camera tours with the Street View cars are still possible, provided that the route is announced in advance. The Federal Data Protection Commissioner Hanspeter Thür and the Internet company have agreed on this interim solution, pending a ruling by the Federal Administrative Court. Thür is striving for a European solution on how to deal with WLAN data. He says he has already contacted other European data protection authorities.
In Germany, the plans for Street View had led to fierce criticism. Citizens fear that the service could be misused for criminal purposes, such as burglaries. The criticism became even louder after it became known in May that personal data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks was also recorded and stored by Google during camera movements for Street View. The company subsequently spoke of an error. The data was inadvertently recorded due to a programming error in the camera cars used for Street View. The service was therefore banned in Austria.
In Switzerland, Google is currently not allowed to publish any new images. However, camera tours with the Street View cars are still possible, provided that the route is announced in advance. The Federal Data Protection Commissioner Hanspeter Thür and the Internet company have agreed on this interim solution, pending a ruling by the Federal Administrative Court. Thür is striving for a European solution on how to deal with WLAN data. He says he has already contacted other European data protection authorities.
