Google Street View could meet Privacy Road Block in UK

By Davey Winder
Saturday, 05 July 2008 18:32

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The privacy related problems just pile up for Google as the first Street View vans are spotted in the United Kingdom and European Data Protection laws are rolled out to greet them...

It is just a bit of fun, this whole Google Street View thing, isn't it? With nose-pickers, nudity and offices shaped liked bulldozers all finding their fifteen minutes of online fame.

Not everybody is laughing though, especially not in Europe where data protection laws could pile on the litigation woes for Google. Forget about complying with takedown notices, they are not likely to impress courts in Europe where in an invasion of privacy even in a public place is now seen as a serious privacy breach.

The European Court of Justice has already ruled, way back in 2003 in actual fact, that identifying people online and without implied permission is a violation of the Data Protection Directive. There is an exception for people taking pictures and publishing them for purely personal and private reasons, and that includes total strangers, but the European Court ruled these did not apply in this landmark case.

Things get even tougher when sensitive data is involved, and if you have looked at any of the Street View gallery sites you will know that plenty of sensitive images are captured. In fact, it has been suggested that in order to conform to the additional European Data Protection Directive requirement for explicit consent in such cases Google Street View camera vans "might need to pull over and start picking up signatures."

What do the legal experts at Out-Law have to say about all this? Read the next page to find out...

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