The director of Privacy International, Simon Davies, is lobbying the Information Commissioner to close Google Street View until the company sorts out privacy-related issues.
The ICO has received a formal complaint based on the the fact that more than 200 reports from members of the public that were identified through Street View, which is a feature of Google Maps.
Before Street View was launched last year, the ICO laid a number of ground rules to which Google said it has abided. But Simon Davies considers that Street View has caused "clear embarrassment and damage" to many Britons.
The ICO, Davies continued, "never grasped the gravity of how a benign piece of legislation could affect ordinary lives" and prompted PI to ask for the system to be "switched off while an investigation is completed".
At issue is what Google promised the ICO when it gave permission for the service to operate in the UK. He demanded that Google would blur faces and registration plates. However it didn't.
Many of the issues quoted have been trivial, but in at least one case, Google snapped a woman who had moved house to escape a violent partner, but who was recognisable outside her new home. In another, two work colleagues were shown in a compromising position and suffered embarrassment when the snap circulated at their workplace.
Was this a innocent mistake on Google’s part or was the Information Commissioner a little trusting in that Google would do what they said they would do? Whatever the case, it is time that ICO started to take privacy on the web seriously and take action to safeguard our civil liberties.
