Google's Street View halted in Greece over privacy

ATHENS -- A privacy watchdog has banned Google from gathering detailed, street-level images in Greece for a planned expansion of its panoramic Street View mapping service until the company provides additional privacy safeguards.

In rejecting Google's bid to roam Greek streets with cameras mounted on vehicles, Greece's Data Protection Authority, or DPA, said it wanted clarification from the U.S. Internet company on how it will store and process the original images and safeguard them from privacy abuses.

The decision, announced Monday, comes despite Google's assurances that it would blur faces and vehicle license plates when displaying the images online and that it would promptly respond to removal requests.

The DPA also sought clarification on how Google plans to inform the public that its vehicles with mounted cameras are being used to take photographs.

"Simply marking the car is not considered an adequate form of notification," a DPA statement said. "The authority has reserved judgment on the legality of the service pending the submission of additional information, and until that time will not allow (Google) to start gathering photographs."

Since launching in 2007, Street View has expanded to more than 100 cities worldwide but has faced privacy complaints from many individuals and institutions that have been photographed.

Residents of a small English village formed a human chain last month to stop one of Google's camera vans. And last year the Pentagon barred Google from photographing U.S. military bases for Street View.

But in most cases, particularly in the United States, Google has been able to proceed on grounds that the images it takes are no different from what someone walking down a public street can see and snap.

And last month, Britain's privacy watchdog dismissed concerns that Street View was too invasive, saying it was satisfied with such safeguards as obscuring individuals' faces and car license plates.

The World Privacy Forum, a U.S.-based nonprofit research and advisory group, said the Greek decision could raise the standard for other countries and help challenge that argument.