Germany has settled a dispute with Internet giant Google over its Street View facility, meaning that photos of homes, shops and offices in Europe’s biggest nation will soon appear on Google Maps, an official said Wednesday.
Although users of the Web site can currently see snapshots of British, French and other European streets, Germany has been a blank in the service so far, after government commissioners accused Google of breaching privacy law.
But where objections are filed about particular pictures of persons, properties or cars, Google will make the image unusable, said the state of Hamburg data privacy commissioner, Johannes Caspar, who led the negotiations for Germany.
Privacy officials said the undertaking now applied as well to the original images made by Google’s fleet of camera cars. That had been a sticking point in the talks.
In most countries, Google blurs the web images on request so that people and homes are unrecognizable. But in Germany, people will be able to request that private properties not even be photographed in the first place.
Caspar said, “Google used its chance before it was too late and accepted all our compromise proposals.”
Last week, Google agreed with European Union privacy officials to announce in advance when the camera cars visit each town. The cameras, mounted over the car roof, take panoramic still-images of streets as the cars move.
On Wednesday for example, a Hamburg newspaper reported that the cars would soon tour the northern suburb of Norderstedt and gave the web address for those raising objections.
Street View has been popular with web users for virtual tourism of foreign places they would like to see, but is also useful for real-estate purchasers eyeing up property.