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Google Removes Offending Images From UK Street View Service

Posted on: Monday, 23 March 2009, 10:55 CDT

Google was forced to remove dozens of photos from its new UK Street View service, including a photograph of a naked child, BBC News reported.

Many have begun filing complaints about the street-mapping facility’s privacy and safety concerns, which has resulted in several pulled images.

Some of the photographs allegedly contained revealing images of homes, a man entering a London sex shop, people being arrested and a man being sick.

However, anyone could have their images removed if they asked, according to a spokesperson for Google. "We've got millions of images, so the percentage removed was very small," Google's Laura Scott told the BBC.

Scott said Google wants the service to be a useful tool and anyone has the right to have their image removed if they like.

"The fact there are now gaps [in Street View] shows how responsive we are," she added.

Citizens like Tony and Cherie Blair are among hundreds of people in the UK who have demanded that close-up photographs of their homes be removed.

The image of the naked child, however, raises public concern over Street Views’ potential as a service that can be used for devious reasons.

"Images of children must be properly blurred. If there is an underlying problem, for example if what has been uncovered is systemic, then we will take up the matter with Google,” said a spokesman for the Information Commissioner's Office.

"It is Google's responsibility to ensure all images of adults and children are satisfactorily blurred. Individuals who feel that an image does identify them [and are unhappy with this] should contact Google direct to get the image removed.

After launching in the U.S. in May 2007, Street View is already available in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain and Italy, while The Netherlands version of the service also launched on Thursday.

Customized camera cars capture the imagery taken along 22,369 miles of streets in the UK. Users can view street scenes in 25 UK cities from Aberdeen to Southampton.

A black image with the message "This image is no longer available," was put up in place of the offending photos. But moving up or down a notch on the street can still reveal many of the images.

Many experts are not surprised that there were some offensive images, like Dr. Ian Brown, a privacy expert at the Oxford Internet Institute, who said this is “exactly what you would expect from a service that relies on individuals to help Google not make mistakes".

He said Google should have been more careful about how they designed the service in order to avoid such problems.

Google could have taken images twice, on different days, so offending images could have been easily replaced and protected privacy better, Brown said.

However, the Internet search leader claims it had gone to great lengths to ensure privacy, suggesting that the service only shows imagery already visible from public thoroughfares.

Street View also employs face recognition technology that blurs out faces and registration plates captured in the photographs.

In 2008, the Information Commissioner's Office ruled that the blurring was sufficient to ensure that privacy was maintained.

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On the Net:

• Google Street View

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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