Google 360 Streetview – Unblurred Images of London

March 21, 2009

We have stumbled across more unblurred photos people and vehicle registration plates (number plates) in London. Some areas of London, especially in the Moorgate and London Wall area, seem to have largely been missed off the blur list. Many recognisable people wandering about the streets when they probably should be in work! It seems that Google has some work to do to get streetview updated in line with its own privacy policies.

Streetview of a street linking Finsbury Circus to London Wall

Clearly Recognisable People on Finsbiry Circus - London Street View

Clearly Recognisable People on Finsbury Circus - London Street View (click to enlarge)

Willow St, Hackney, London Street View – Lorry Driver taking a break? Willow Street, London - Lorry Driver taking a break, or driving with no hands?

Willow Street, London – Lorry Driver taking a break, or driving with no hands? (click to enlarge)

There are probably countless other examples of where Google has “failed to protect the privacy of people” on the streets of London. Google have a bit of reputation management to do now, as similar reports to this have been spread across the tabloid press in the last couple of days.

The funniest thing really though is that while we are just pointing out a few failures on Google’s part, we do not actually think that there is anything fundamentally wrong with your image appearing in a photo online. What is funny is that tabloid press complaining that Google is invading people’s privacy, and then displaying the photos in newspapers, meaning that the images will be seen by tens of thousands of people that would never have seen the photo otherwise. Once again it seem that the tabloid press is invading people’s privacy, and not Google. Of course, they will say that they are reporting the facts, for the benefit of the British people.

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One Response to Google 360 Streetview – Unblurred Images of London

  1. Stu on March 22, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    Not just that but many of them are pictures which have already been flagged to Google and they’ve already deleted, but the papers putting them up on their websites and publishing them keeps them in the public domain.

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