Google working to make Street View images anonymous

Exec says faces, license plates won't be recognizable outside U.S. -- and maybe within it

- In the face of concerns raised by privacy advocates, Google Inc. is making changes to its Google Maps Street View feature designed to protect the privacy of people whose faces or possessions can be seen in close-up views of the street-level photographs.

When Street View is rolled out in Europe, Google will alter the photos to make sure that faces and license plate numbers aren't recognizable, said Jane Horvath, the company's senior privacy counsel. She added that Google is considering taking the same steps with the U.S. version of the Street View software.

Developed for Google by Immersive Media Corp., Street View lets Google Maps users click on a city street and see a panoramic photograph of the area. The pictures are taken by special 360-degree cameras that are roof-mounted on Volkswagen Beetles, which cruise around cities, constantly snapping photographs. The photos are so clear that people on the street can often be identified.

Soon after Street View was launched in the U.S. last May, photographs appeared that showed scantily clad women and men who apparently were entering adult bookstores or strip clubs. That prompted privacy advocates to complain that the technology was invasive. Kevin Bankston, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, was among those who complained after he identified himself in a Street View photo.

Google responded by creating a method for people to remove their photos. But Horvath acknowledged that in other countries and regions, including Canada and the European Union, the company will have to take more aggressive measures to protect personal privacy.

"When we launch our product there, we'll be under an obligation to ensure that faces are not recognizable, nor are license tags," Horvath said Thursday during a discussion forum at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. "As we launch those products, we will be thinking within our product teams whether this is something that we'd like to do within the U.S. also."

Street View maps currently are available for 15 U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Miami.

In the U.S., Google can legally publish photographs taken in public places without securing permission from people who happen to be in the shots. But that practice violates privacy laws in many other countries.

And even if it is legal, some people may be put off by having their images appear in photographs that can be viewed by anyone on the Internet, Horvath noted.

"It's sort of that 'ick' feeling that something makes you feel uncomfortable," she said. "Our products are not static, and we're always open to changing them to make sure our users feel comfortable and trust us with their information."

Horvath added that the Street View controversy "calls into question the whole idea of whether privacy is something that needs to be regulated by law, or if there's this other concept of privacy that we need to look at, which is the right to autonomy."