Greece Puts The Kibosh On Google Street Views

Privacy groups in Greece have prevailed in a battle with Google's Street Views product. Google has been banned from collecting images of Greek streets.Google's Street Views, which offers street-level images of buildings and landmarks, has been under fire from privacy watchdogs pretty much since its inception. It has survived lawsuits here in the U.S., but was chased out of an English village recently. Now, it's been chased out of the country of Greece.

Greece's Data Protection Authority (DPA) made the decision to ban Google from driving its cars around the country and capturing images of Greek streets, residences, and, as it happens, citizens, as the car drives past.

According to the New York Times, the DPA has concerns over how the images would be stored and for how long. It also wants more information from Google on how Greek citizens' privacy will be protected. The DPA doesn't believe the blurring of faces and license plates goes far enough.

The DPA also believes that Google has failed to properly notify the public when the imaging cars are driving through their neighborhoods. Google clearly marks the cars.

In a statement, the DPA said, "Simply marking the car is not considered an adequate form of notification. The authority has reserved judgment on the legality of the service pending the submission of additional information, and until that time will not allow (Google) to start gathering photographs."

Of course, Google said it will do what it can to prove to the DPA that it can and will protect the privacy of Greeks.

For now, Greek privacy advocates 1, Google 0.