| U.K.'s Labour Party Names Shadow Cabinet U.K. Labour politician Alan Johnson has been appointed to the key role of shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a realignment of the party's top brass. online.wsj.com |
Google defends Germany Street View rollout Concerns over panoramic mapping service are largely based on 'misinformation' claims spokeswoman for search engine giantGoogle has defended the rollout of its Street View mapping service in Germany, where it is the subject of a nationwide debate about online privacy, ahead of a Friday deadline for people wanting to opt out of being pictured on the site.Lena Wagner, a spokeswoman for Google in Germany, said that although the company takes privacy "very seriously", many of the fears about Street View are based on "misinformation".Google's announcement that it would launch its Street View product in 30 cities across Germany prompted calls for stricter data protection regulation and high-level meetings between the company and government officials.Google in turn made concessions to its planned rollout, allowing members of the public to opt out of being photographed on the service by 15 October.The Czech Republic last month banned Google from expanding its panoramic mapping service, saying the product "disproportionately invades citizens' privacy".In an interview with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle published on Wednesday, Wagner said: "No two countries are ever the same and we work with the authorities in every country to address concerns they may have about Street View. All images in our Street View product abide by the local laws and cultural norms of the country they are taken in and Street View only features imagery taken on public property."Wagner said Google would publish the number of people who have chosen to opt out of the service when it has the information, but said the company has no plans to make the opt-out concession available in other countries."This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see walking down the street themselves," she said. "Imagery of this kind is available in a wide variety of formats for cities all around the world and on various sites on the web."[...] Many fears are based on misinformation, such as [the belief that] Street View imagery is [in] real-time – in fact it is anywhere between a few months to up to two years old at the time a given area is introduced. We take privacy protections very seriously and that's why we have developed state-of-the-art operational and technological controls for Street View, including the automatic blurring of faces and licence plates."Google has confirmed it will delete data such as addresses and names of people opting out of Street View in Germany within a period agreed upon by the country's data protection authority.Markus Beckedahl, editor of the influential Germany-based technology website Netzpolitik, separately told Deutsche Welle that the nationwide debate over Google Street View and privacy marked a watershed moment in German history."I don't think Google Street View is a debate about nothing," Beckedahl commented. "But it sounds a bit crazy because Google Street View isn't the biggest privacy problem that we have in Germany. It's the first privacy debate where a lot of people can feel something about it."[...] Google Street View [is] something where my parents have an opinion about it, and maybe your parents do, too. This is a new level in that debate."The UK's information commissioner has ruled that the Google Street View service does not encroach on the privacy of citizens. Writing in response to a complaint by campaign group Privacy International in April 2009, the information commissioner said: "If consent [to upload images of private citizens] were required by law, then the producers of, say, Match of the Day, would have to gain the consent of all people attending televised football matches who might be caught on camera."GoogleGoogle Street ViewMapping technologiesInternetPrivacyDigital mediaJosh Hallidayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Irish police probe claims of kangaroo on dancefloor Police in the Irish Republic are investigating reports that a wallaby or baby kangaroo was released onto the dancefloor of a Dublin hotel at the weekend. bbc.co.uk |
U.K. Submarine Runs Aground A nuclear-powered British submarine was grounded in an accident off the coast of Scotland, though officials said the incident wasn't serious and no one was injured. online.wsj.com |
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