Privacy advocates are happy with plans to blur licence plates
Gillian Shaw
Sun
Google’s Street View application allows users to see city streets around the world. It has also created some privacy issues after people have been filmed coming out of sex shops or out of incriminating events
Google Street View is coming to Canada, making it possible for people to virtually visit neighbourhoods in Canada‘s major cities and get a street-level view of city streets, homes and businesses.
While Google View has raised privacy concerns in some countries, Canadian privacy experts say they have been working with Google to ensure Canadians will be protected through such features as blurring to obscure identities and licence plates.
British Columbia‘s Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis said he welcomes the news that Google plans to blur licences.
He said he will be asking Burnaby-based Canpages — which has already launched a street-view service similar to what Google is planning — to make changes that ensure licence plates caught in its photo sweep won’t remain on the Internet.
Canpages marketing director Michael Oldewening said it’s not necessary to blur licences in his company’s service — which launched recently in Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler and plans to expand across Canada — because plate identification isn’t available to the public.
Elizabeth Denham, Assistant Privacy Commissioner of Canada, said displaying licence plates online can be a privacy issue.
“I think it is a concern to individuals even though there isn’t real-time photography,” she said in an interview. “People don’t expect when they are perhaps parked in front of a sensitive locale that their licence plate will be uploaded to the Internet.
“It may be an abortion clinic, maybe someone is shopping at a sex shop, or entering a woman’s shelter — individuals’ privacy has to be protected.”
Denham said her office has been working with Google to address privacy concerns in advance of Tuesday’s announcement that Google photo cars will start taking pictures in a number of Canadian cities in the coming weeks.
“We are pleased to see the announcement today by Google that they are letting Canadians know of their intention to collect new images for the application in Canada,” she said.
Both Google and Canpages also offer the option of letting people have images they find inappropriate removed, although if the images have already been captured by an Internet surfer, that measure won’t necessarily ensure they aren’t stored on someone’s computer hard drive.
Google Street View has raised controversy in the United Kingdom, where it was launched earlier this month. A number of photos, including one of a man leaving a sex shop and another of a man being sick on a sidewalk, were removed. The U.K.-based Privacy International has filed a complaint with the Information Commissioner.
Google Canada spokeswoman Tamara Micner wrote in an e-mail that Google sought guidance and approval from the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office, which she said has made it clear it feels the necessary privacy safeguards are in place.
She said the fact some people have used the tools in place to remove images indicates that the tools work effectively.
Google announced Photo View will be available for Canada “in the near future” for the following Canadian cities: Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax and Saint John.
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