Google to renew German Street View photos, sparking privacy concerns

Google plans to renew the images of German streets in its Street View service after more than a decade, when the move raised privacy concerns among the country's citizens.

Starting on June 22, the company's camera vehicles are to take new pictures, Google announced on Thursday. After that, the Street View service is expected to be updated gradually from mid-July, initially only for the 20 cities where it has so far been available.

With Street View, users can see photographic views of streets from Google's map service and move around in them on the screen.

Street View was introduced in Germany at the end of 2010, while the photographs for it were taken in 2008 and 2009. At the time, a relatively large number of people in Germany exercised their right to make the view of the buildings in which they live unrecognizable.

Google has not updated Street View in Germany since then, but it has in other countries.

Anyone who wants to have their home pixelated after the update must submit a new objection; the objections from 2010 no longer apply.

Google had camera vehicles driving through streets in Germany last year. Their recordings have so far only been used to improve the digital maps, however the company now plans to use them in part for updating Street View.

According to Data Protection Commissioner Thomas Fuchs in Hamburg, Google approached him in March to clarify legal issues surrounding the publication of the new images.

He stressed that when the photos were taken in 2022, the public had not been informed that they could also be used for Street View.

According to Google, this had not been the intention at the time. He had asked the company to inform him about the changed plans. Google said it was carrying out the update in close coordination with Fuchs.