Does Google’s “Streetview” compromise stretch the boundaries of privacy? John Cooper reports
A few weeks ago, Google launched “Streetview” in the UK. An intricate series of photographs of every street in London can now be accessed by anyone on the internet, revealing almost every home in the capital, right down, one solicitor told me, to the geraniums in her window box.
There has been a significant amount of sabre rattling in this country by those who find their properties and even their images appearing on the Google facility, but, what are the prospects of success against Google as a result of Streetview in the UK?
Last September a few months after Streetview was launched in Europe, officials in the small town of Molfsee in Germany alleged that Google needed a permit in order to take photographic images of their streets and that it would not be granted any. Interestingly, Google deleted the images from this area, but kept the rest of Germany online. The current state of challenge in Europe depends upon whether any litigant will take a claim through their domestic
