EU tells Google to warn cities before sending in Street View cameras

Concerns: Google was told by EU privacy regulators to warn cities where its Street View cameras would be taking pictures

Protest: Two men can be seen sitting quietly wearing scuba gear before spotting the Street View car and chasing after it in Bergen, Norway

Google has been told to warn people before it sends cameras out to take pictures for its controversial Street View maps.

The EU privacy regulators say refusal to give adequate notice could lead to legal action.

And the internet giant must shorten the time it keeps the original photographs from one year to six months.

The regulators also said it should avoid taking pictures ‘of a sensitive nature and those containing intimate details not normally observable by a passer-by’.

The crackdown follows numerous complaints that Street View is an invasion of privacy. It provoked a storm of controversy after it launched a year ago.

It remains to be seen what actions residents might take once they have been warned by Google that it plans to photograph their street.

But they may follow the example of residents in the Buckinghamshire village of Broughton who in April formed a human chain to stop a camera van.

They complained Google had no right to take pictures of their houses, calling it an ‘invasion of privacy’ and an ‘invitation for burglars to strike’.

Britain’s privacy watchdog has rejected calls to shut down the free online service, saying it carried a ‘small risk’ of privacy invasion but that removing Street View would be disproportionate.
Officials said Google had to erase raw footage of faces, house numbers, licence plates and individuals who have told authorities they do not want their information used in the service.

Earlier this month, two enraged Norwegians in scuba gear chased after the Street View vehicle as it took pictures in Bergen.

The company, based in Mountain View, U.S., must now give advance notice in the local or national press before it takes pictures, the EU said. The current policy of putting alerts on its website was not enough.

And its practice of keeping original unblurred pictures for a year in case of complaints was ‘disproportionate’, regulators said.

The system today indicated its vehicles would be in Nantes, France, as well as other nearby cities.

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said Europe had ‘high standards for data protection’ and she expected that ‘all companies play according to the rules of the game’.

In a statement, Google said its need to retain Street View images for one year was 'legitimate and justified'.

Street View launched in the U.S. in 2007 and now adds photos of real-life street scenes to Google's maps of around 100 cities worldwide.

To placate privacy concerns, it uses special software to blur pictures of faces and car licence plates.

Google has been slow to expand the service in Europe after governments raised concerns that taking pictures of people in public places could break EU rules on personal privacy.

The data privacy warning comes a day after an Italian court convicted three Google executives - including privacy director Peter Fleischer - of privacy violations because they did not act quickly enough to remove an online video that showed sadistic teen bullies mocking and hitting an autistic boy.

Google said it would appeal the case, claiming it attacked freedom of speech on the internet.

It also faces an EU probe into allegations that it demotes rival sites in its search rankings.