Jeremy Kirk reports:
Google is facing fresh complaints over Street View in Germany, after technical proble to be visible rather than blurred in a preview of the service launched earlier this weekms caused some properties.
Users of Apple iPads and iPhones found that the blurring was not complete on their devices, said Johannes Caspar, head of the Data Protection Agency (DPA) for Hamburg, on Friday. Google released imagery for the city of Oberstaufen and landmarks in five other German cities on Tuesday.
Google “agreed with our objections that nobody should see these pictures,” Caspar said.
The company has agreed to black out the images, Caspar said. But the error is raising questions over how Google is handling the blurred images, which under an agreement with the DPA should be deleted from the company’s databases, Caspar said.
Read more on Computerworld.
Earlier this week, I was appalled by Google’s statement that there would be “some” mistakes in terms of revealing homes that had opted-out, and this newest report is just more evidence that Google needs to be stopped from implementing Street View in Germany until it can do it properly and protect the privacy of those who care enough to have opted out. The German Data Protector should take a zero tolerance policy with these “mistakes.”