German Privacy and Google Street View

As online technologies that allow the geographical identification of individuals and their property, such as Google Street View, have become mainstream, things have become more complicated. As the scale of the German outcry was enormous, Google allowed homeowners to opt out of having their property displayed (the company already pixellates the faces of individuals) for the first time. At least 100,000 people took advantage of the offer.

But Google's partial retreat wasn't enough for some privacy advocates. and they pushed for a blanket "opt-in" rule at the "Information Summit" with German Interior Minister, Thomas de Mazière, meaning that tech companies would have to seek explicit permission from people whose geo-data they were publishing.

Mr de Maizière instead called on internet companies to draw up a binding industry "data protection charter", in line with German privacy laws, by December 7th. Rather than codifying an opt-in principle, the charter should make it easier for people to opt out of online mapping services. Some information doesn't want to be free.