Auf wiedersehen, Google Street View. There’s going to be no more new street view pictures in Germany, says the search engine company.
Google isn’t taking any of the old Street View pictures down, but they’re not adding or updating any either. Street View was just launched in Germany last summer, but was scrutinized for its privacy after pictures showed up of random people picking their nose, taking a dump behind a tree, or any other types of incriminating shots.
Thanks to the country’s privacy laws, Google gave German residents to option to have their homes blurred out if they wanted. A recent court decision has made street photography legal, so Google has no current reason to pull away.
The company says their new, “business priority is to use our Google cars to collect data such as street names and road signs to improve our basic maps for our users in a similar way that other mapping companies do.”
Still given the difficulties Google has faced in Germany, it’s also possible the company has just decided to give up dealing with the hundreds of thousands of citizens that have decided to have their home, property, or business blurred out.
Just keep in mind that you might want to double-check the address of your hotel on vacation in Germany. It might be a restaurant in the future.
(via Search Engine Land)
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Google Pedals Street View Trike Through Roman Colosseum, Other Touristy Sites