Jul 26, 2023 12:00:00

Google Street View updates photos of Germany for the first time in about a decade

Google Street View , a service that publishes panoramic photos of landscapes developed by Google, has been the first street view image in Germany in about 12 years since the suspension of updating in 2011 due to protests and lawsuits regarding Google Street View's privacy. Updated in July 2023.

Entdeckt Deutschland mit Google Street View!
https://blog.google/intl/de-de/produkte/suchen-entdecken/entdeckt-deutschland-mit-google-street-view/amp/

Aktualisierung für Google Street View in Deutschland

https://blog.google/intl/de-de/produkte/suchen-entdecken/google-street-view-aktualisierung-deutschland/

Google Street View to Post First New Pictures from Germany in a Decade - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-25/google-street-view-to-post-first-new-german-pictures-in-a-decade

Google Street View is back in Germany after 10+ year halt
https://www.androidpolice.com/google-street-view-germany-after-10-years-privacy-outcry/

Google Street View was launched in 2007, and in just a few short years the service has spread all over the world. However, in some European countries, the lawsuit over Google Street View has been filed because ``the street view car was acquiring personal information via Wi-Fi'' and ``there is a problem from the viewpoint of personal information protection''. was done frequently.

Google loses lawsuit over Google Street View in Switzerland, ordered to strengthen privacy protection - GIGAZINE

Following a series of protests and opposition to the service from European regulators, Google voluntarily stopped updating Street View photos in Germany in 2011.

However, as the years passed, discrepancies began to occur between the actual city view and the street view images that had stopped updating. Below are some images from Munich, Germany. In the street view image (left) taken in June 2008, it is a vast vacant lot, but in the image (right) taken in 2023 in the same place, Google's Munich office is built.

When Google conducted a survey of 1,500 Germans in response to the discrepancy between the actual landscape and Street View, about 91% of the respondents who answered 'I know Street View' I gave a positive rating to the view.

'Times have changed,' said Google spokeswoman Lena Heuermann.

After that, from March 2023, Google

held discussions with the German data protection monitoring agency and reported that it resumed shooting with the Street View car from June 22, 2023.

In the new street view released from July 25, 2023, street views of 20 German cities and tourist attractions such as Berlin , Hamburg , and Munich in 2022 have been newly released.


When resuming Street View, Google announced that ``Google always takes customer privacy seriously, so we will update it while working closely with data protection monitoring authorities.'' ``When we publish a new Street View image, we will delete the old Street View image,'' he said.

Google also reports, ``Pedestrians and car license plates are not only automatically blurred, but users can request blurring for houses and apartments as needed.''