Google Maps. Google Places. Google Earth. Google Hotpot. Google Latitude. Google Street View. Different mobile and desktop versions of some of those. Different Android and iPhone versions of some. The list could go on. If you think Google has too many locally-oriented products, you're not alone. Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of Search who recently began focusing on the company's local efforts, agrees. "I think that, ultimately, we do have too many products and we need to condense them," Mayer said Friday at the SXSWi conference in Austin. "I think some of our products should be features. Ar [...]

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If all goes according to plan, Google's Street View service should be driving through select cities in Israel soon and the photos could be online later this year. It'll be Street View's first move into the Middle East but, despite the obvious security concerns, the Israeli government says the service will be good for tourism and appears to be ready to let it launch with what one interested observer calls a "minimalist approach" to security issues. About two weeks ago, a committee led by Israel Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor announced plans to cooperate with Google to bring Street View [...]

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Swiss privacy officials want Google to blur every face in Street View, even it's by hand. Google typically does facial blurring with automation and says that process works in 99 percent of cases. However there's that pesky 1 percent of cases where that doesn't fully obscure people in the photographs. Now the Swiss are telling Google that the company should manually review all Street View images taken in Switzerland or "take the service offline," according to the Wall Street Journal. The Swiss have very strict privacy rules (obviously). Currently Google is prevented by court order from up [...]

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Google and the Connecticut-led coalition of 40 US states will avoid court and begin negotiations that are aimed at settling issues related to Google's collection of personal data over unsecured WiFi networks. In a press release issued today (PDF), newly-elected Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen says the coalition will not pursue a demand issued last month that Google produce the data it had collected. The previous AG, Richard Blumenthal, had hinted that he would consider legal action if Google resisted giving over the data. According to today's announcement, Google has made a fe [...]

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Here's a follow-up up on last week's report: South Korean police have now filed criminal charges against Google over the collection of personal information via unsecured wifi networks. The data was collected by Street View vehicles in South Korea between October 2009 and May 2010. According to the AP story, police examined the data that Google collected and determined that it broke two South Korean laws. South Korean police concluded after months of analysis of hard disks obtained from Google that the company's activities broke South Korean laws protecting privacy of telecommunications a [...]

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South Korean police are planning to file criminal charges against Google executives over the collection of personal data via unsecured wifi networks. According to IDG News/PCWorld, the country's national police agency has determined that Google acted illegally when it gathered personal data as part of its Street View mapping service. A police official says they're interviewing Google officials in South Korea, but wouldn't confirm if arrests are expected. Police say they plan to file criminal charges against the Google executives that ordered the data collection, but that may never happe [...]

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The Telegraph reports Google was sued by a Japanese woman because its Google Street View service displayed an image of her home with her underwear hanging in clear sight. The suit is for over $7,000 US dollars or 600,000 Yen. The woman is claiming psychological distress that has worsened her existing obsessive-compulsive disorder. "I was overwhelmed with anxiety that I might be the target of a sex crime," the woman told a district court. "It caused me to lose my job and I had to change my residence." "I could understand if it was just a picture of the outside of the apartment, but sh [...]

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Connecticut's outgoing Attorney General says legal action is a possibility after Google refused to turn over personal data that it's collected via unsecured wifi networks. Richard Blumenthal tells the Wall Street Journal that he's "disappointed" by Google's decision not to respond to recent demands to review data that Google collected from Connecticut businesses and residences. "We will review any information we receive and consider whether additional enforcement steps -- including possible legal action -- are warranted," Blumenthal told the WSJ on Friday. Google has maintained all alon [...]

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Saying it's unlikely to get a conviction, the Australian Federal Police has given up its six-month investigation of Google's collection of personal data over unsecure WiFi networks. In a statement issued Friday, the AFP says that Google's activities "may have" broken the law, but that pursuing the matter further doesn't make sense. Evidence exists to suggest that the potential breach of the TIA by Google was inadvertent. Coupled with the difficulty of gathering sufficient evidence required for an examination of potential breaches, the AFP has concluded that it would not be an efficient [...]

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A court case that began in 2008 when a Google Street View vehicle took photos on a private road in Pennsylvania is over. The judgment? Google owes the plaintiffs a dollar. Aaron and Christine Boring originally sued Google with a variety of claims, including invasion of privacy, trespassing, punitive damages, and more after a Street View vehicle drove onto a clearly marked private road and took photographs of their home. In 2009, a US District Court threw out the entire case, but earlier this year, an appeals court allowed the trespass claim to continue. In doing so, the appeals court pred [...]

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Will 2011 be the "year of privacy"? There are many reasons to think so. In the US, the Obama administration is planning to establish a committee or "czar" to oversee potential new internet privacy rules. Republicans and Democrats alike seem to be concerned about online tracking and privacy issues. The question would appear to be not "if" or "whether" but how burdensome and strict new privacy rules will be for publishers and online ad networks. In Europe privacy has long been treated with greater protection and stiffer rules than in the US. However those rules are inconsistent across cou [...]

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Google Earth 6 is being introduced today. It includes a number of significant upgrades and improvements. Specifically, Street View has been more deeply integrated into Earth. Users now can fly "seamlessly" from space to the street wherever Google has Street View imagery. Interestingly, Google is also introducing 3D trees to make Google Earth's 3D environments more realistic. And finally, Google has added more historical imagery, which allows users to see earlier photography of the same location on a timeline (from 1945 to the present). Each of these changes makes sense and enriches the G [...]

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Some people who chose to blur their houses on Google Street View in Germany received an unexpected real life blurring: Google fans who threw eggs at their homes. Deutsche Welle reports that on Saturday, several homes in the Bergerhausen area of Essen that opted to be blurred were hit with eggs. "Google's Cool" notes were also taped to their mailboxes. Der Westen reports similarly, in German here. Neither gives the exact number of homes involved nor are pictures of the eggings posted. To the right, an example of one of the blurred homes in the area. Google Street View launched in Germa [...]

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It seems not a week goes by without news of a new investigation into Google's Street View service, or into Google's collection of personal data via unencrypted WiFi networks that occurred over three years as Street View vehicles drove the world's streets. It seems like one country opens an investigation just as another country ends theirs. Some countries have multiple investigations open. Or closed. You need a scorecard to keep track of it all. So, we decided to make one. Below is a list of investigations that we're aware of -- a list we'll update as new development [...]

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Although the FTC ended its investigation into Google's collection of personal data via unsecured WiFi networks, Google's not necessarily in the clear with the Obama administration. According to the Wall Street Journal, the FCC is looking into whether Google broke the law when its Street View cars collected personal data between 2007 and May, 2010. An FCC spokesperson confirmed to the Journal that it opened an investigation earlier this year. As we reported over the weekend, members of Congress may also call Google to testify in 2011 about the matter. Numerous foreign governments are st [...]

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In a six-page letter to House Oversight Committee leaders, a watchdog group has called on the government to do a "thorough investigation" of both Google's WiFi data collection and the FTC's recent decision to end its investigation without penalizing Google. In a blog post announcing the letter (PDF download), Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, also ties the FTC decision to Google's "extensive and close lobbying connections with the Obama Administration." He writes: Yet in late October, the Federal Trade Commission abruptly ended its investigation of "Street Vie [...]

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Calling Google's collection of personal data over unsecured WiFi networks "very troubling," a US congressman says CEO Eric Schmidt may be called to answer questions when the new Congress convenes next year. Representative Joe Barton made the comments on C-SPAN's The Communicators program today. Although Google has repeatedly said the data collection was inadvertent, Barton seemed to express doubts about that on the program: There appears to have been a conscious effort to collect information. Now, Google has said it was inadvertent. But it wasn't just kind of ... accidentally gathered. A [...]

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Following the lead of both the U.S. and Canadian governments, the UK government has decided against fining Google for its collection of personal data over unencrypted WiFi networks as part of the Street View photography service. According to the BBC, UK Information Commissioner Christopher Graham has ruled that Google committed a "significant breach" of UK laws, but Google won't face fines or any form of punishment. Just last week there was speculation that Graham would use his authority to fine Google up to £500,000. Instead, the UK government has told Google to delete the personal as soo [...]

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Despite ongoing controversy in Germany, the small town of Oberstaufen is the first in that country to be viewable on Google Street View. And, as requested, Google has blocked the homes of German residents who don't want to be included. You can see see that image for yourself. Why is it blurred? Earlier this year, Google took the unprecedented step of letting Germans opt-out of having their homes appear in Street View photography; an estimated 244,000 households took Google up on that offer -- a little less than three percent of homes in the country. That was just the latest in Goo [...]

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Prosecutors in Italy are investigating Google's Street View service to determine if the company violated privacy laws when it collected wifi data over unencrypted networks earlier this year. Officials in Rome announced the probe on Wednesday. This is separate from Italy's request last weekend that Google mark its Street View cars and publish their itineraries in advance. That ruling was from Italy's privacy authority and was more about the generic Street View photography; this new probe is specific to the wifi data collection that several countries are investigating and is being conducted b [...]

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