Google changes image removal policy for Google Maps

Posted by Dennis Sellers Aug 22, 2007 at 9:25am

Google, which has gotten flack from privacy advocates for photographing faces and license plate numbers and displaying them on the Street View in Google Maps, has made a change in its policy. reports CNET. Originally, the company said only people who identified themselves could ask the company to remove their image.

But now anyone can alert the company and have an image of a license plate or a recognizable face removed, not just the owner of the face or car, says Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google. “It’s a good policy for users and also clarifies the intent of the product,” she said in an interview following her keynote at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, Wednesday.

CNET notes that the policy change was made about 10 days after the launch of the product in late May, but wasn’t publicly announced. Google is removing images only when someone notifies them and not proactively, Mayer says.

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