Google's Street View to Respect Privacy Laws

Google allayed some fears yesterday, announcing that its Street View application, which provides street-level images of certain cities, would respect each country’s privacy laws. “In the U.S., there's a long and noble tradition of 'public spaces,' where people don't have the same expectations of privacy as they do in their homes,” a Google lawyer wrote on a company blog. Other countries, however, differ.

Already, people can contact Google to request the removal of their images, ComputerWorld reports, but Google is prepared to ensure faces and license plates don’t show up in certain countries. “There's an important… debate in every country around what privacy means in public spaces,” the Google lawyer wrote. “That balance will vary from country to country, and Street View will respect it.” (More Google stories.)