Google stops clicking Street View in Germany

In a rather unexpected move after it won a court battle in Germany on its right to take pictures of  streets, Google has all but called off the exercise. A Google spokesperson told search engine news and information site, Search Engine Land, that it had other priorities.

He said the company's business priority was to use its Google cars to collect data such as street names and road signs to improve its basic maps for its users on the same lines as other mapping companies.

However, the imagery of streets in 20 cities in the company that it has already covered would remain. Google, though has not disclosed reasons for halting its Street View photography but analysts say that it could be due the company growing weary of blurring pictures of buildings as requested by German citizens. Around 250,000 Germans have objected till date and their numbers are growing larger.

So far the internet search company has acted in good faith negotiating with the Germans, giving them the choice to be included in Street Vies and countering accusations of using open Wi-Fi signals to gather data, which according to the company was inadvertent.

Google's Street View troubles are not limited to Germany, it was fined $142,000 for violation of privacy laws in France. Some analysts say though privacy laws differ across countries few people, concerns over privacy matters in the context of  imagery of public streets seems to be a somewhat misplaced. However, they add Google would let people who think their safe.

Google's been having more trouble with Street View in other countries lately as well, including France, where Google was fined $142,000 for privacy violations in March. Different countries have various privacy laws, but we're not thinking people have a reasonable expectation of privacy when they're walking down a public street. Even so, Google will let anyone in the world opt out of Street View if they so desire.