D: Google Streetview blurs raw data of aggrieved parties

Category: Nachrichten
By: O. Gönner - 2B Advice GmbH - the privacy benchmark

Following demands by the commissioner for data protection and freedom of information of the city of Hamburg, Google has decided to respect the objections of the aggrieved parties, and to delete raw data.

Google systematically records street level images with a view to developing a new service. This service is designed to allow the user to take a virtual journey through real streets. Wide areas of the USA have already been electronically recorded. Google's photography of German cities, however, has stirred the displeasure of the general populace, and of data protection commissioners.

 

Google has said that it is willing to provide a platform to enable aggrieved parties to lodge objections against the use of their images. Objections can be lodged over the use of pictures of persons, property, and motor vehicles. Images which have been objected to will be blurred while they are still in their raw form.

 

It is important to note here that only natural persons have the right to object. Companies and businesses cannot demand that their premises be removed from the Streetview database, for instance.

 

On the other hand, Google's move to uphold the rights of the aggrieved parties sets a precedent, which companies offering similar services will have to follow. The images which have been objected have to be permanently obscured.

 

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