Montreal (ECN) - The introduction of Google Street View in Canadian cities, has raised a lot of privacy and security concerns over the past week. 11 cities were recently added to the Street View system. The technology has been available in the US since 2007, and several other countries. The Canadian government has animatedly expressed their concern with their citizens' rights being violated.
Google has taken precautions to ensure that people’s faces have been blurred and will not be recognizable. They have also blurred license plates to further enhance privacy. They have stated the pictures that are available with Google Street View, are pictures that anybody can see, from any public street.
The Canadian police suggest that these images make it easier for a burglar to stake out an area, without physically being there. A potential burglar can look at the locks on the doors and windows, and see which homes are easy targets. The police have not received any complaints from homeowners yet, so they will not get too concerned at this point.
The Vancouver Winter Olympic Games are scheduled for February, 2010. This application makes it easy for visitors to see landmarks and other areas of interest from their iPhones.
"We're thrilled that Street View is now available for Canada in time for the 2010 Winter Games," said Jonathan Lister, head of Google Canada, in a press release. "Street View has been hugely popular with our users worldwide, and now Canadians and others can see the streets and landmarks of Vancouver, Whistler, and other cities, and innovate in exciting ways. Governments, businesses and individuals across Canada use Google Maps and Google Earth every day as essential and informative tools: Street View now adds a new dimension."
Google Street View is now available in 14 countries including Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Taiwan, and the and the UK.
