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Having recently got itself completely banned in Greece and ruffling privacy feathers in both the United States and United Kingdom along the way, Google’s interactive 3D mapping service Street View has this week taken a significant step backwards in Japan.
Controversy? It\'s this way. Image: matthewsim/Flickr.
More pointedly, all of the street-level photography captured across the country by Google’s fleet of specially equipped camera cars is to be totally re-shot after waves of Japanese residents complained that their private property was visible through the Street View service.
Far from peering into specific rooms in individual houses, it would seem that Google’s 360-degree cameras have violated residential privacy after they were mistakenly mounted some 16 inches too high on their Street View vehicles, resulting in the capture of private property over fences and walls.
According to PC World, California-based Google has said it will completely pull its Japanese content before repositioning all the cameras throughout its Street View fleet and dispatching them to begin the photography process anew.
In related news, a privacy watchdog in Greece has imposed a ban on Street View until Google is able to provide satisfactory service guarantees regarding privacy.
The Greek Data Protection Authority moved to enforce the ban despite Google’s existing privacy safeguards, which include adding facial blur to clearly defined individuals and vehicle number plates, and also a pledge to consider pulling any images that are formally requested for removal.
Street View, which is an interactive tool available through Google Maps, allows users to move through a 3D version of photo-captured cities by dragging the computer cursor along predetermined guide lines or swinging the camera completely around to garner a full panoramic view.
The service has been criticised for capturing sensitive military and government sites, and peering into private residential areas, along with snapping individual people entering and exiting sex shops, vomiting and urinating on the street, and even displaying lewd gestures towards the camera.
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