Google’s Street View has met with mixed reactions; some people like it, while others worry about matters of privacy. Still, while Street View is completely legal in the U.S., a recent discussion indicates that the service might not go unchallenged in Europe.
In case you’re wondering, this is not a moot point; although Street View is currently available in just five American cities, The Herald – a British publication – reports that Google “is already planning to expand the service to other US cities and other countries, including the UK . . .”
And so, that leaves us to examine the legal predicament in which Google may find itself. Out-Law.com’s Struan Robinson lives in the UK, and writes, “Our data protection regime lets us take holiday snaps, even of strangers, provided we’re doing so for private purposes. But if we’re taking snaps for commercial use, where individuals are identifiable, there is no such exemption. We need to notify the subjects, and that’s hard for Google to do.”
One semi-wacky solution comes to mind, but Robinson is a step ahead to nix it. “Even a loudspeaker on top of the camera cars (‘Hi, it’s Google here, say “cheese” everybody!’) might not suffice,” he continues.
It remains to be seen how Google will react to these arguments, or if the company will even care – it occasionally seems like Google enjoys making work for its legal department. Yet, considering that Street View has just barely begun within the U.S., these European issues may not become real problems for some time.
