Protect, protect and protect! by Barbora Misakova

What do we still have with that protection of personal information? One thing is when your potential employer is asking you for your confession or sexual orientation, because that actually IS personal. But why are we so fussy about information such as color of our house or car? Do we really believe it is so important that it could be misused by someone? I simply have to laugh. Anyway, Google Inc which planned to collect new images of European cities to update its Street View data collection has bad luck. Czech data protection authorities have stopped them. Google Street View is a feature in Google Maps which allows its users to view and navigate within 360-degree street lev! el imagery. As Google’s Privacy Policy says: “Blurring technology and operational controls like image removal are amongst the ways in which we ensure that an individual’s privacy is respected.” That means you can ask to have photographs of yourself, your family, cars or even houses to be completely removed from the product. You can ask for it even when images have already been blurred. Google which has sent a fleet of Street View cars around the globe has to wait, as it faces challenges in 37 U.S. states and a number of other countries, including Czech Republic. The Czech Office for Personal Data Protection rejected Google’s application for a second time as they believe the process could potentially break the law. Even though this decision doesn’t ban the use of photographs already taken in October 2009, Google’s Czech branch said in a statement it would respect the decision but noted it was not definitive. “We will continue t! o closely cooperate with UOOU and we believe the matter will b! e resolv ed in the near future.” the company said.

related story (sgx18194): http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100914/tc_nm/us_google_czech_st...

by Barbora Misakova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

Cantell TV is the fastest growing provider of digital broadcasting coupled with telecommunications, allowing people to easily control, view, upload and share digital content through proprietary interface coupled with free phone calls. Cantell TV is committed to delivering infinite choices to your world of entertainment at the tip of you! r fingers.