Information Commissioner Contacted 74 Times Over Street View Concerns

Privacy regulator the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said that 74 people have written to it about Google's Street View service since its launch last month. It said it would release details of the complaints and enquiries soon.

The controversial photo-mapping of 25 UK towns and cities has prompted protests from privacy campaigners, notably Privacy International's Simon Davies. In a letter defending its backing for the service, the ICO said that the face blurring technology largely worked, and that Google had stuck to its word in removing any images on request.

The service launched on 19th March in the UK and by 30th March the ICO was able to tell Davies that it had received no complaints about any Google failure to keep its word on image removal.

"We emphasised to Google the importance of including the facility for individuals to report problem images, that such a facility should be accessible to all users and that Google act promptly on those reports," said an ICO letter to Davies. "We have not been contacted by any individuals concerned that a reported image has not been amended or removed."

An ICO spokesman has told OUT-LAW.COM that it has received "74 written complaints/enquiries since the launch of Google Street View", but the ICO was not able to break down those concerns before publication.

The ICO gave Street View the all clear last summer, based on descriptions given by Google of how software would automatically identify and blur faces and car number plates. It recently wrote to Davies of Privacy International to respond to his claims to the regulator that Street View was illegal. It stood by its initial assessment that the service was not a breach of the Data Protection Act.