Google Learns Lessons in Privacy from the Germans
While Germany is resisting against Google Street Views, the company finds itself both coming and going, in various German towns across the country. Meanwhile, Google integrated in the platform Germany’s 20 most important cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne.
The resistance comes from the participants’ fear of being targeted by burglars, but as any other controversy, there is also the party of supporters, who encourage the expansion of the Google Street Views. At an attempt to reach a happy medium, Google began to blur the faces and the license plates of its Street View images in Germany. The service logged images dating back to 2008, but there’s also fresh images from the beginning of this year.
In Germany, after tension escalated Google’s Street View initiatives in France and Spain, Google collected images of private residences without asking for permission. Only after the wave of dissonance from residents and officials did Google start to offer opt-out settings for Street Views. 240,000 in Germany alone wanted to be withdrawn from the online service initiated by the giant data collector.
Even with that, the remonstrance hasn’t determined Google to drag out Street Views from Germany, with Google noting this is only a portion of its user base as a whole. Facebook uses similar reasoning towards complaints regarding its privacy settings, appealing to the massive user base that doesn’t seem to mind its steadily spreading public access services.
The overall impression of Google Street Views by the German people is winding: some being excited by the Street Views’ expansion in their country, while others are against Google’s service, and even its action of superficially blurring some images.
The case of Germany is similar to the U.S. Street Viewer or U.K.’s situation. Recently Google has been facing investigative probes after its practice being recognized a “significant breach” of data laws.
Google is accustomed with investigations regarding its practices harming privacy. Currently, The Federal Communications Commission is analysing the Google’s alleged breaking for laws by harvesting consumer information.
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