Dr. Dobb's | Google Waffles on Street View Takedown Policy

Google Waffles on Street View Takedown Policy

Google has backed down on its requirement for a photo ID in order to take an image of a person down from its Street View map service.

June 15, 2007
URL:http://www.drdobbs.com/web-development/google-waffles-on-street-view-takedown-p/199904845

The controversy over personally identifiable photos of people appearing on Google's Street View map service continues to brew.

Several years ago, Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer Kevin Bankston found a picture of himself on Amazon's now-discontinued maps portion of its A9 search service. Almost miraculously, it appears Google has done it again: Wired blogger Kevin Poulsen discovered Bankston in the Street View system, apparently walking to work, and promptly notified Bankston.

Bankston asked Google to remove the image, and Google replied that they would require several pieces of information, one of which was a copy of Bankston's photo ID. The unfolding saga has been chronicled on Poulsen's Threat Level blog on Wired.com.

In the latest development, Google has changed its policy, backing down from requiring any photo ID for the removal of personal images.