• Google Street View Banned in Greece

    Google Street View Banned in Greece

    Techtree News Staff, May 13, 2009 0016 hrs IST

    Comes under scanner again!

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Google's Street View has been put on hold in Greece, as the Hellenic Data Protection Agency (HDPA) demands that Google inform them about the measures taken by it to safeguard the privacy of the people and what measures it will take to make people aware of their privacy rights. Apparently, the HDPA would also like to know for how long Google would keep the images on its database.


 



Meanwhile, Google says that it is yet to read the full details of the agency's request and will do what is legally required of it to do.

In a statement released by Google, they say it takes privacy very seriously, and that's why we have put in place a number of features, including the blurring of faces and license plates, to ensure that Street View will respect local norms when it launches in Greece. We have already spoken with the Hellenic Data Protection Authority to ensure that they understand the importance we place on protecting user privacy. Street View has not been banned in Greece. We have received a request for further information and we are happy to continue discussing these issues with them. We will discuss with them whether it is appropriate for us to continue driving in the meantime. Although that dialogue is ongoing, we believe that launching in Greece will offer enormous benefits to both Greek users and the people elsewhere who are interested in taking a virtual tour of some of its many tourist attractions."

Google Street View is a service that allows users to zoom into a given location on Google Maps and then drag the Pegman icon above the zoom bar on to a given street. A picture of the street then appears and the user may get a 360 degrees view of the surrounding area and may explore further along the street. It includes 9 countries including the US and UK and aims to cover the entire continent of Europe.

Street View has been criticized before too and has been accused of invasion of privacy. It has faced opposition from individuals who did not want the areas surrounding their homes to be photographed as well as by entities such as the Pentagon, who have forbidden it from filming at any location near military facility, citing a potential security threat .

Interestingly, a similar incident had occurred earlier in Greece, when their local ISP Kapou's similar street mapping service was suspended. Greece takes the privacy rights of its citizens very seriously. Even traffic cameras are not exempt from this rule as you may be able to read on the HDPA website. The decision of Greece to ban Street View may set a precedent to other European countries setting a domino effect into motion. We will just have to wait and watch.

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