Google Street View comes to Liverpool amid privacy fears

Jul 21 2008 EXCLUSIVE by Richard Down, Liverpool Daily Post

Google Street View camera mounted on a car in Liverpool (320)

People across the country have spotted similar vehicles, but Google is not releasing any details about when or where they intend to map next.

Lesley McGoldrick, a Liverpool based solicitor with DLA Piper’s Technology, Media and Commercial team, said the scheme threw up privacy issues.

She said: “Data protection laws will raise issues relating to how Google is taking images and whether the public in a particular area are aware of what Google is doing and how their images may be used.

“If images are being taken without an individual’s knowledge and they can be identified from that image, or the image shows the individual doing something unusual, then such practices could be unfair unless that individual’s consent has been obtained to use their image.

“Google has promised to obey local privacy legislation, but lawyers have warned that British data protection laws could make Street View’s eventual launch in the UK a legal minefield.”

Google already takes down images deemed inappropriate, when they are flagged up by users.