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Google Launches Indoor ‘Street View’ Shots | PCMag.com

October 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Google is taking its Street View mapping service indoors. No, it won’t capture you vegging out on your couch, but the feature will be exploring the interiors of certain businesses.

A pilot program started in April 2010 and back in May, Google announced plans for 360-degree Business Photos, a program that would send Google photographers to various businesses to snap professional photos for their Places Page. A spokeswoman said today that “we’re seeing renewed interest in the past few days because as promised, as more of the imagery becomes available, we’re getting more of it online.”

Atlantic Wire pointed to a comic book store in Tustin, California that has interior Street View activated. Arrows appear on the floor, allowing you to walk right in and peruse the layout. If you’re at the street level, you can just “walk” into a store following the same arrows.

“This experience, using Street View technology, includes 360-degree imagery of the business interior and storefront,” Google said back in May. “With this immersive imagery, potential customers can easily imagine themselves at the business and decide if they want to visit in person.”

Photographs are taken by “trusted” photographers, Google said, though businesses can also upload their own images via Google Places. The company is currently setting up shoots in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, and the UK. In the U.S., that includes Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Austin, D.C., Boston, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. Google said it is starting with businesses “that we know are searched for most regularly,” like restaurants, hotels, retail shops, gyms, salons, and repair shops.

If you want your business photographed, you can apply online. Google will own the photos it takes, but businesses can request to have shots they don’t like removed.

via Google Launches Indoor ‘Street View’ Shots | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

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BBC News – Google’s UK Street View wi-fi data ‘deleted’

December 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which has been criticised for not taking a more hardline stance against Google, confirmed the deletion.

The first batch of wi-fi data, which included snippets of e-mails, URLs and passwords, was deleted in November.

But legal wrangles in other countries meant that the remaining data, all of which the firm said was collected in error, took more time to erase.

“We can confirm that the UK data has now been deleted, and that this has been independently certified,” said Google.

The deletion was carried out by US forensics firm Stroz Friedberg.

via BBC News – Google’s UK Street View wi-fi data ‘deleted’.

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BBC News – Google’s wi-fi data to be deleted

November 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The UK’s information commissioner has said that wi-fi data accidentally collected by Google’s Street View cars will be deleted within the next nine months.

Deputy information commissioner David Smith told the BBC that there would be no further enquiries into the matter.

He said there was no indication that any information collected “had fallen into the wrong hands”.

It will not appease critics who called for the search giant to be fined.

There were no grounds for fining Google, Mr Smith told the BBC.

“We’d have had to find that there was substantial damage or distress to individuals from the collection of snippets of e-mails, URLs and passwords. We’d have to meet that criteria for a penalty to be imposed,” he said.

via BBC News – Google’s wi-fi data to be deleted.

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BBC News – Google in ‘significant breach’ of UK data laws

November 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There was a “significant breach” of the Data Protection Act when Google collected personal data via its Street View cars, the UK’s Information Commissioner has ruled.

But Google will not face a fine or any punishment, Christopher Graham added.

Instead, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will audit Google’s data protection practices.

The move marks a U-turn for the ICO which originally ruled that no data breach had occurred.

Last week the ICO vowed to look again at the evidence, after the Canadian data agency found the search giant in breach of its law.

via BBC News – Google in ‘significant breach’ of UK data laws.

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Google CEO: Don’t like Street View? ‘Move’ – Computerworld

October 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has again kicked up something of an online firestorm with a statement about privacy.

In a CNN interview Monday, Schmidt responded to questions about what Google knows about people by saying that if people don’t like having their homes photographed for Google Street View for the world to see, they can “just move.”

The comment came during an interview on the Parker Spitzer show. “With Street View, we drive by exactly once, so you can just move,” said Schmidt, eliciting uncomfortable laughter from interviewer Kathleen Parker. “The point is, we only do it once. This is not a monitoring situation.”

Those few sentences stirred up the blogosphere, and various news sites erupted with stories about Schmidt apparently telling people they can move if they don’t like having their houses on Street View.

via Google CEO: Don’t like Street View? ‘Move’ – Computerworld.

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Google Privacy Lesson: Tighten Your Wi-Fi Security – Computerworld

October 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I hate to blame the victim, but people who inadvertently gave up personal data to Google’s Street View cameras were really asking for trouble.

That’s because a simple precaution, clicking the encryption option in your router’s set up page, will foil Google’s cyber vacuum cleaners.

Then there’s the never ending Facebook privacy leakage scandal. Last week we learned that Facebook’s largest apps, which collectively boast tens of millions of users, are capturing personally identifiable information about Facebook users and sharing it with advertisers–violating both Facebook’s and the app makers’ own privacy policies. And now thanks to a research paper that’s gotten little attention, it appears that gay men and women on Facebook may have been inadvertently outed to its advertisers.

via Google Privacy Lesson: Tighten Your Wi-Fi Security – Computerworld.

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244,000 Germans Opt Out of Google Mapping Service – NYTimes.com

October 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Google on Thursday said 244,000 people in Germany had asked the company to remove images of their houses and apartments from its Street View maps, but that the requests would not derail its plans to activate the service this year.

The figure was in line with what German data protection officials had previously estimated. The officials predicted that several hundred thousand people would opt out.

In a blog posting on its Web site, Google said 2.9 percent of the 8.5 million households in Germany’s 20 largest cities had opted out of the service.

via 244,000 Germans Opt Out of Google Mapping Service – NYTimes.com.

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Germans flood Google with Street View opt-out requests – Computerworld

September 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Google has received an increased number of requests from Germans who want to omit their properties from its Street View imagery program.

The German publication Der Spiegel reported on Saturday that the requests number several hundred thousand, but Google is not releasing an official figure.

“As expected, due to the wide media coverage and our own information campaign the number of letters we have received has increased in recent weeks,” according to a company statement. “Our first priority is to verify and process all the genuine applications. At this stage it is therefore not possible to give an accurate number of opt-outs.”

In August Google launched a special program for Germans that allowed people in certain cities to request that their properties be blocked from appearing on Street View, due to go live in 20 cities later this year. People can use an online tool or write an e-mail or letter to make the request. Google extended the program from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

via Germans flood Google with Street View opt-out requests – Computerworld.

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Germany debating privacy with Google and peers | Reuters

September 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

German officials met internet firms on Monday to try to reconcile Germany’s strict data protection rules with programs like Google’s “Street View” mapping system, as calls for regulation intensify.

Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner, who has clashed with social networking site Facebook over its handling of user data, told a newspaper she expected tougher legislation to rein in some ambitions of Google, the world’s No. 1 search engine.

“We must legally regulate the collection and use of geographic image data,” she told Tagesspiegel daily, adding that she felt companies could not be left to regulate themselves.

That echoed the view of hundreds of thousands of Germans who have requested that their homes be kept out of Google’s service, which uses fleets of cars equipped with cameras to take panoramic pictures of cities for its online atlas.

The German government has been critical of Street View and said it will scrutinize Google’s promise to respect privacy requests by letting people stay out of the project. Germans have until October 15 to apply for an opt-out.

via Germany debating privacy with Google and peers | Reuters.

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Google Wi-Fi Spy Lawsuits Head to Silicon Valley | Threat Level | Wired.com

August 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Whether Google is liable for damages for secretly intercepting data on open Wi-Fi routers across the United States is to be aired out in a Silicon Valley federal court.

Eight proposed class actions from across the country that seek unspecified monetary damages from Google were consolidated this week and transferred to U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Jose, California. Another five cases are likely to join.

The lawsuits allege that Google violated federal and state privacy laws in collecting fragments of data from unencrypted wireless networks as its fleet of camera-equipped cars moseyed through neighborhoods snapping pictures for its Street View program.

via Google Wi-Fi Spy Lawsuits Head to Silicon Valley | Threat Level | Wired.com.

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