14 DAY TRIAL // Since it was first rumored that Google may want to expand its Street View technology into Europe, the EU officials came out and explained that in case the Mountain View company really considered such an expansion, it had to comply with the local laws that may or may not allow it to display photos showing residents' faces. In France, for instance, citizens have the right to choose whether or not they want to appear on a public service such as Street View, so Google may have a tough job in case it really wants to bring street-level photos in Europe.
And, according to the recent reports, Google does want to do that. Several Street View cars have been spotted in multiple European countries, including here Italy and France but the Mountain View-based company has never confirmed or denied the speculations.
Getting back to the European Union, Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx recently said that bringing Street View in Europe might cause serious trouble to Google in case the search company doesn't manage to comply with the laws. "Making pictures everywhere is certainly going to create some problems. Apparently there is the capacity to adapt this in different modes", he said in a conference according to Reuters.
And yes, there is a solution to avoid privacy complaints and the Mountain View company has recently debuted it as a testing version for Manhattan. For those of you who missed the news, Google rolled out a face-blurring technology that could protect the company of privacy complaints. Still, there are some other private details that could appear on the high-resolution photos provided by Street View such as vehicle registration plates or other in-house details. However, Google has always defended itself of these complaints, explaining that Street View shows no more than what it could be seen from the street.