By Wenwen Meng: Subscribe to Wenwen's RSS feed
August 10, 2010 9:46 PM EDT
Google Inc on Tuesday announced it had resolved a privacy row with Germany and would launch its Street View service there by year-end, but on the same day the internet giant was raided in South Korean for having collected sensitive information through the Street View program.
"Google will roll out Street View for the 20 biggest German cities by the end of the year," the Mountain View, California-based firm said in a statement.
The service, launched on May 25, 2007, provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the cities like New York, Paris or Hong Kong.
However, the controversial service has drawn criticisms from worldwide. Google on Tuesday was suspected to have gathered personal information of portal users from October to May through the Wi-Fi networks while setting up the Street View program or photo map service in Seoul, the South Korea said.
Google's problems in Germany escalated in May, when authorities discovered that the Street View vehicles were collecting private data sent over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, potentially including e-mails and passwords. Google admitted it, but noting "Quietly simply, it was a mistake."
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To continue operating in Germany, Google agreed to launch a campaign informing citizens concerned about safety or privacy how they can have pictures of their homes or businesses pixelled out before they are published.
"Renters or owners can apply to have their building made unrecognisable before the pictures are published online" from next week, the company said.
At least 10,000 Germans have already requested that their homes or properties be blurred, according to a report of Der Spiegel.
Google already blocks out people's faces and car number plates in the other countries featured on Street View and will also do so in Germany.
Currently Google is providing the Street View program in 23 countries, of which 12 are in Europe.
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