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Google Maps Street View is a stunning display of highly detailed 360 degree views of American cities and hordes of people have poured over it looking for funny and sometimes disturbing things in the backgrounds of the images. But ever since its launch some privacy advocates have been criticizing Google for showing photographs of faces and license plate numbers.
Yesterday, Google quietly changed it's policy on how the company deals with privacy complaints in Street Views. To address privacy concerns, shortly after the launch of Street Views, Google said that anyone who could identify themselves could ask for the image to be removed.
Of course, that's not easy given the massive amount of data you'd have to sift through, which is why Google has quietly changed its policy -- now anyone can alert the company and have an image of a license plate or a recognizable face removed even if it isn't you.
Google says the move is intended not just to protect privacy, but also the "clarify the intent of the product," as vice president of search products and user experience at Google, Marissa Mayer, put it recently at the ongoing Search Engine Strategies conference.
CNet [reports][1] that Mayer says Google "looked at it and we thought that's really silly because that's not the point of this product. The purpose is to show what the stores look like, what houses look like, if someone says, 'Hey, there's a face here,' ... it doesn't matter whose face it is."
While it may not have been Google's intent, that doesn't mean users don't love to dig through Street Views, for some highlights check out our earlier collection of the [best of Google Street Views][1].
[1]: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/request_for_urb.html
[2]: http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9764512-7.html?part=rss
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