View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
March 25, 2009

Info commissioner receives Google privacy complaint

By paulmcnally

Privacy campaigners have made a formal complaint about Google’s controversial new mapping service.

Privacy International has lodged the complaint with the Information Commissioner over claims that a number of people are identifiable through the Street View service.

A Google spokeswoman said: “The ICO has repeatedly made clear that it believes that in Street View the necessary safeguards are in place to protect people’s privacy.

“The fact that some people have used the tools in place to remove images shows that the tools work effectively.

Scores of pictures, including one of a man exiting a Soho sex shop and another of a man being sick on the pavement outside a pub in Shoreditch, were removed from Street View on Friday, a day after its fanfare launch in the UK.

An ICO spokesman said it was Google’s responsibility to make sure all vehicle registration marks and faces were satisfactorily blurred.

He said: “We will look at the complaint that Privacy International have made and we will respond shortly.”

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Director of Privacy International Simon Davies said: “Our attitude is the whole thing is unlawful, we don’t much care whether the Information Commissioner has given it the thumbs up.

“We’re proposing a suspension of the whole system until an investigation has been undertaken and at that point we can reach a conclusion as to whether it is lawful.”

Topics in this article :

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network