Privacy watchdog rejects demands to axe Google 'snoopers'

CALLS to shut down Google's new Street View service were rejected by the privacy watchdog yesterday, which said it would not be right to "turn the digital clock back".

The service, which offers a virtual tour of streets in 25 UK cities including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee, attracted a number of complaints about privacy invasions and perceived snooping following its launch last month.

The Information Commissioner was asked to consider the implications of the service after a complaint was made by the campaign group Privacy International. The group argued that Street View breached the privacy of people accidentally caught on camera by Google's photo cars.

But yesterday the watchdog said that the service, which allows internet users to scroll around a montage of street-level photographs of Britain, does not breach the Data Protection Act.

A spokesman said removing the Street View in its entirety would be "disproportionate to the relatively small risk of privacy detriment".

The Information Commission's senior data protection practice manager David Evans compared being captured by the service to passers-by being filmed on television news camera or football crowds in the background on televised matches.

It would not be in the public interest to "turn the digital clock back", he said. "In the same way, there is no law against anyone taking pictures of people in the street as long as the person using the camera is not harassing people," he added.

"Google Street View does not contravene the data protection Act and, in many cases, it is not in the public interest to turn the digital clock back.

"In a world where many people Tweet, Facebook and blog, it is important to take a commonsense approach towards Street View and the relatively limited privacy intrusion it may cause."

He said Google should routinely blur images of people's faces and car number plates.

The company has pledged to remove any image on Street View if a request came from a member of the public.

Google was responding "quickly" to requests from people to have particular images deleted, he said.

When the service launched, users discovered a man walking out of a sex shop and another being sick outside a pub. Residents of Broughton, near Milton Keynes, blocked the driver of a Google Street View car, which captures the photos, when it tried to enter the village.

Despite clearing Street View, the Information Commissioner's office confirmed it had received 74 complaints and inquiries about the service, and would continue to monitor it.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) revealed it met Google in July 2008 to discuss privacy issues before Street View's launch last month.

A Google spokeswoman said: "We are pleased with the ICO's statement. We took care to build privacy considerations into Street View from the outset and have engaged with the ICO throughout the development process.

"We recognise that a small minority of people may not wish their house to be included in the service, which is why we have created easy-to-use removal tools."

Dr Ian Brown, privacy expert at the Oxford Internet Institute, said: "I can see why they felt that it would be difficult to tell Google to make significant changes this late in the day, but I feel that there could have been greater consultation between Google and the commission in setting up the system.

"I don't think the claim that you can't turn the digital clock back stands, either. The argument that new technological services are always a good thing and should be allowed to run regardless just isn't true."