14 DAY TRIAL // Google's Street View service has been especially controversial in Germany, a country with some of the toughest privacy laws in the world. Currently, Google is allowing Germans to have their houses removed from Street View once the service is launched later this year.
But, after, reportedly, a huge number of people have opted out of Street View, the government is holding a special meeting to decide the fate of Street View and similar mapping and location services.
The German weekly magazine Der Spiegel has said that, already, hundreds of thousands of people have expressed their option to have their houses not show up in Street View.
When the service launches, these houses will be blurred, just like people's faces and car number plates. But with hundreds of thousands of submissions it seems that there won't be any houses left for Street View to show.
Google has not confirmed the number, saying that, at this point, it is impossible for the company to know how many requests it has received since it gets them through several means, letters, the online tool, emails, and many may be duplicates or illegitimate.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere is holding a meeting today to decide how to handle online mapping services and whether regulation is in order. The minister has been trying to please everybody without having to block Street View entirely.
He believes that there tends to be an overreaction when Street View, perhaps, unjustifiably so. And he says that his ministry has no intention of coming up with tougher laws or outright bans.
"A general right to object to the publication of images taken from the side or from above will not go through," he said. However, if a service goes beyond this, there may be repercussions. A statement from the German government concerning the talks is expected later today.