Google has been told by European Union data privacy regulators to warn people before it sends cameras out to take pictures for its Street View maps.
The online search giant should shorten the length of time for which it keeps the uncensored photographs it takes from one year to six months, the regulators also said in a letter to the company.
Google said its need to retain the original Street View images for a full year is “legitimate and justified” in a statement.
The company said it already posts notifications on its website about where its cameras are being sent. The alert function indicated yesterday that Google’s picture-taking vehicles had been cruising the streets of Cagiliari in Italy, Nantes in France and possibly other nearby cities.
Street View launched in the United States in 2007 and now adds photographs of real-life street scenes to Google’s maps of around 100 cities worldwide.
It uses picture-editing software to blur pictures of faces and car license plates in a bid to soothe privacy concerns.
But the company has been slow to roll out the service in Europe after governments raised concerns that taking pictures of people in public places could break some EU rules on personal privacy.
