Google Street view cleared

The United Kingdom's Information Commissioner has made a ruling concerning Google's recently introduced Street View. It has decided there might be a slight chance of invasion of privacy it should still continue.

The new technology which is able to add a photo of various places onto a map led to complaints that the Data Protection Act was being breached. It was decided that stopping the Street View service would be an over reaction according to a spokesperson. Recently, it was reported in the news that residents of one village had blocked a Google photographer from taking pictures near to where they live. For their part, Google have always made it clear that they were taking into account UK law and pictures were always taken in areas that were public. This service has only been introduced into the United Kingdom over the last few months. The service has been used in the States since May 2007. A group called Privacy International along with 74 other people, had contacted the Information Commissioner asking that the Google service be suspended after it was noticed that some people's faces could still be made out in pictures. Google have made it clear that should anyone contact them asking that an image be removed then it would be taken down. A Google spokesperson, remarking on the decision said: "We recognise that a small minority of people may not wish their house to be included in the service which is why we have created easy to use removals tools," David Evans, senior data protection practice manager for the Information Commissioner said: "It would not be in the public interest to 'turn the digital clock back'," "In the same way, there is no law against anyone taking pictures of people in the street as long as the person using the camera is not harassing people," "In a world where many people Tweet, Facebook and blog, it is important to take a commonsense approach towards Street View and the relatively limited privacy intrusion it may cause."