Google Street Views has been a clear case of “act now, ask later,” having published millions of photos of residential and business areas across the world. The ballsy move has understandably raised several doubts in Google’s judgment for how to handle such an undertaking, with protests early on in Street Views development.
And after a series of legal red tape issues in Germany and across Europe, Google is finally taking more steps in the right direction by allowing residents to opt out of Street Views prior to the photos going public. So far, over 240,000 have opted out all together.
Germany has been proactive about getting Google Street Views under some sort of regulation. It launched an investigation into Google regarding the search giant’s data collection methods, which Google chalked up to human error.
But it’s the human effort that counts the most here – had Google dedicated a larger human work force towards the Street View project in the first place, a number of privacy issues could’ve been avoided with localized governments.
One of the most interesting aspects of Google’s response to Germany’s opt-out requests was the hiring of 200 employees to handle them all. They’ve been brought on to validate resident removal requests. Germany’s case is the first time residents have been able to opt out of Street Views prior to the photos going public.
But in typical Google fashion, the number of people that have decided to opt out of Street Views does not deter the company. It’s barely a blip in the grand scheme of things, demonstrating that only “97 percent of German households have no problem with Street View,” said Kay Oberbeck, a Google spokesman in Hamburg. “We have gone out of our way to make sure everyone’s concerns have been addressed.”
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