Privacy group targets Google Street View U.K.

This story has been updated. See below for details.

Watchdog group Privacy International has filed a formal complaint with the U.K. government over the recent introduction of Google's Street View in Britain.

Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, argues that Street View has caused "clear embarrassment and damage" to many residents of the U.K., according to a BBC News report. The street-level feature of Google Maps, which debuted in the U.K. last week, provides a driver's-eye photographic record of urban landscapes, including storefronts and pedestrians.

The complaint was filed with the Information Commissioner's Office, which confirmed that the documents had been received, but declined to provide any details. Privacy International did not immediately respond to inquiries.

Street View should be "switched off" while the U.K. government investigates the matter, Davies said, according to the BBC. Privacy International is said to cite 200-plus reports of Street View making members of the public identifiable.

The Information Commissioner's Office worked with Google before Street View was launched in the U.K. and said that the Internet giant offered assurances that adequate safeguards would be put into place. In a statement provided Tuesday, the ICO said:

It is Google's responsibility to ensure all vehicle registration marks and faces 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. Individuals who have raised concerns with Google about their image being included - and who do not think they have received a satisfactory response - can complain to the ICO.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt told the BBC that the company agrees with privacy concerns. "The way we address it is by allowing people to opt out, literally to take anything we capture that is inappropriate out," he said in the BBC story, "and we do it as quickly as we possibly can."

In February, Google won a lawsuit in a U.S. court over a complaint by a Pittsburgh couple that Street View had violated their privacy.

Update 7:28 a.m. PDT: Privacy International has provided a copy of its filing with the ICO. The gist:

In summary, we believe on the basis of complaints received, that the service has created numerous instances of embarrassment and distress and that the promised privacy safeguards do not provide adequate protection to shield Street View from the general requirement to provide notice prior to collection of the data. We also believe that the technology has created substantial threat to a number of individuals and that the extent of intrusion into the homes of some complainants is unlawful. In such cases, Google should have acquired consent from individuals before images were captured.

Among the complaints cited by Privacy International:

• A woman who has for several years been moving house to avoid detection from a former violent partner complained to us that she felt extreme distress when Street View identified her outside her new home.

• Two men working for a large organization were identified by work colleagues in a situation which gave the appearance that they were kissing each other. This was not the case, but the image - subsequently widely circulated throughout the organization - has caused great humiliation to them and their (female) partners.

• A fifteen year-old boy was caught on Street View carrying a skateboard, which his parents had expressly forbade him from using. The boy subsequently had a row with the parents and is now staying with friends.

[umbrae]

Street View is evil and should be disabled. There is no end of the abuse that can be done with this system.

[thelemurking]

There is no privacy any more. Seriously, with all the CCTV cameras up, security cams at ATMs, fast food joints and every where else you can imagine... there is no real privacy. If people stopped and actually thought about how often they are photographed and filmed on a daily basis, then they would truly be frightened.

[biffhenerson]

Street View is awesome! I have used it many times to become familiar with a location to which I am driving. Questions like, Where is the nearest entrance to the parking ramp? Are there parking meters? What does the front of the Acme Hardware Store look like? Priceless.
Privacy International is producing urban legends and wild made up stories in order to attempt to freak people out. Boo hoo.

[sparrowhyperion]

I don't see a problem as long as they DO blur out faces and other identifying images. I use it all the time and it makes driving in areas which I am not familiar in a lot easier.

[sythara]

I agree, street view is a great tool. Being able to see where you're going and how everything looks before leaving your house is very helpful. For people conserned with privacy, I ahve to say grow up. There is no privacy anymore so get used to it.

Faces and car tags should be blurred out, yes. If you can see inside someone's house, it should be blurred out too. But other than that, if its on a public road or a public place, then everything thats seen is public. You don't own the street. If you want privacy, get curtains for your house.

[professionaladventurer]

Why? I don't understand how it violates privacy. So your face is recorded on the internet is a SLIGHTLY easy format for other people to see. They can't search for your face YET and even if they could search for your face, they would need to have a photo of you first.

[Sam Papelbon]

http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/informationSystems/support/photos/photos%20ISIG/photos/SimonDavies.Jpg

here's a picture of simon davies, let's get searching :D

[aMUSICsite]

Is there anywhere I can join a group that actively tries to get 'Privacy groups' banned ;)

[fuzbears]

Ironically, people living in small towns would have the same problems as they listed above without technology, because people in public would have known them. Living in large cities gives people the illusion of privacy because people who do see them don't care what they do. After all, the kid who got caught with skateboard would not have been able to complain if his neighbor saw him and told the parents. The kind of world they seem to be advocating would only work if people were forbidden from seeing each other on the street. Technology just makes it more obvious how stupid that assumption of privacy was.. You don't know who is watching, you never did.

[starv8]

This is all hot air. It'll die down soon enough.

[amadensor]

The UK government already has everyone on CCTV several times a day. Which is more scary, the government tracking your movement throughout the day, or the whole world can see you one place, one time, and they don't really know when, but it is quite a while ago?

[unknown unknown]

There is some irony here. The citizens of the UK are some of the most spied upon people in the free world and Privacy International has this strange obsession with Google, the latest of which seem to be Street View.

When you are in public or in public sight you do not have privacy. A teenager disobeying his parents then throwing a tantrum when caught is hardly a compelling argument.

[Sam Papelbon]

what self-respecting privacy group would be making such public complaints? simon davies: your privacy is lost. we're watching you.

[farker1]

What a joke! The UK is the most spied-on nation in the world, courtesy its government (a local council is even using air-borne heat-detecting equipment to rat out people wasting energy).

And now static photos in a public location, accessible to everyone and not just faceless bureaucrats and law-enforcement officers, is a bridge too far?

[HyraxX]

Frivolous accusations like this undermine real privacy concerns.

[MMcCubbing]

The part that really gets me is "Google should have acquired consent from individuals before images were captured." Do they honestly expect the driver to stop and ask every single person if it is ok? Or should they just send a letter to every person on earth asking for permission?

Although I understand the privacy concerns, I think that this is too much. Groups like Privacy International seem to do more to annoy than protecting anything else.

[ajhoughton]

Privacy International should change its name to Stupidity International after these comments.

As regards the cases cited above:

Fact 1: There is no option in Google Street View to "search for beaten ex-wife". So the man that the woman mentioned above is afraid of would have to roam the streets in Google Street View, in the same way that he would have to in real life, in order to locate her.

Fact 2: As regards the two men photographed in such a way that it looks like they're kissing, the fault in this case lies with whoever it was thought it a good idea to send the photograph throughout their workplace. They could just as easily have been photographed by any of their colleagues, or in the back of a shot taken by a cameraman working for a media organisation, and the same thing could have happened.

Fact 3: The 15-year-old was doing something wrong at the time (disobeying and disrespecting his parents). Frankly his parents' neighbours, in an ideal situation where we actually have a community and people speak to each other, should have told his parents about the skateboard anyway. Is Privacy International really complaining that a 15 year old boy got caught doing something he shouldn't?!

I think the comments from fuzbears and co. are spot on. I actually don't even see why Google should have to bother blurring faces; the street is a public place, and anything that can be seen from the street is on public view. Put another way: if you're ashamed of your behaviour as recorded by Google Street View, why did you do it in the first place? And perhaps you should have been ashamed of yourself already? Maybe, even, it is the case that you shouldn't have done whatever you were doing?

[jeremy_barker]

In the past I had a good deal of respect for what Privacy International said. Now they have made some truly ridiculous complaints about Google StreetView and have thereby lost much of the respect I once gave them.

[AspieMum]

In these days of modern technology and the ability to manipulate the content of photos shouldn't Google cut out people from the Street View? It make take longer but it would be more acceptable. Anyway first they should up date their airel photos. My road is on their maps but the picture is the industrial site that was here before this estate was built.