By Sean L

Google will respond to requests for the removal of German Street View images, even before they are published on the internet. Beyond that, original, unblurred images will be removed from Google's database on request.

The privacy safeguards demanded by Hamburg's Data Protection Office exceed those that Google has agreed to elsewhere in Europe and North America. Until now, Google's policy has been to remove Street View images from the internet only after a request is made after publication.

Google has filtering technology that blurs certain features, such as faces and license plate numbers. This is done to address privacy concerns. But the technology is not perfect and sometimes an identifiable feature is left unblurred. Previously, only after publication could a complaint could be filed, and the image removed. Hamburg's Data Protection Office demanded that a request for removal could be filed even before publication.

An even more striking departure from it's policy in other countries, is the option to remove the original, unblurred image that is stored in Google's own internal database. Google has previously maintained that saving these images is necessary for it's own legitimate uses, for example, to improve the filtering technology. The indefinite use of the original, unblurred images has been a source of privacy concerns since Google Map's Street View was first introduced.