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Google Futzes With Faces In Street View

No, your vision isn't failing you. Google is testing new software that blurs the faces of people captured by its Street View cameras. The goal is to appease privacy advocates. Manhattanites will have their privacy restored first.

As Google Street View expands its reach around the world, Google wants to prevent any further problems by taking preventative measures. According to Google's Lat/Long Blog, "This effort has been a year in the making -- working at Street View-scale is a tough challenge that required us to advance state-of-the-art automatic face detection, and we continue working hard to improve it as we roll it out for our existing and future imagery."

It has started blurring faces in Manhattan, and Google offers up a few examples in the blog post. Google did not say how long it will take to blur all the faces it has captured with Street View. While the faces are indeed blurred, they aren't blurred that much. I would bet most people pictured will still be able to identify themselves, as well as family and close friends.

That said, it's a first step. Google's John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Google Maps, admitted the technology isn't perfect yet. CNet quotes him as saying, "It does a good job of figuring that out. It uses a variety of technologies to filter."

Google already has begun scanning city streets in Europe, including Paris and Rome, where it will have to contend with different privacy rules. Perhaps the blurred Street View will be enough to stave off action by the EU.

In the meantime, I'm still waiting for Street View cameras to drive down my street.

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