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Google starts blacking out London

Google, once again, has sparked controversy with the new Street View service available on Google Maps. The Google Car took a trip over the pond to London, where it saw a reveller throwing up outside a Shoreditch pub, a man being arrested and a man walking out of a sex shop in Soho.
Written by Zack Whittaker, Contributor

Google, once again, has sparked controversy with the new Street View service available on Google Maps. The Google Car took a trip over the pond to London, where it saw a reveller throwing up outside a Shoreditch pub, a man being arrested and a man walking out of a sex shop in Soho.

Welcome to London. What did you expect?

Whilst many newspapers over in here in the UK, such as London's very own Evening Standard and the Nazi-esque anti-immigrant views of the Daily Mail have all pounded the technology for "assisting offenders with burglaries", I've just been on the phone to a Google spokesperson who is in brilliantly good spirits about the technology.

"Some are worried about displaying the Houses of Parliament and other buildings, but we've gone to great lengths to cover this with the [Metropolitan] Police, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) to make sure everything is in order."

Any images which are deemed unacceptable can easily be reported to Google and the average time for removal is "less than 24 hours", according to the Google spokesperson. Some of the images which have been displayed in the media have now been blanked out by the technicians working on the product.

While the face blurring technology isn't perfect, at least it makes an effort to report the images as unsuitable, and passes the data protection laws the UK has in place.

What's your take on Google Street View? Comment and let me know.

Updated: something I saw earlier on which made me laugh. This is Microsoft's office in Cardinal Place, London. This is practically proof that the sun shines out of the Microsoft's arse. </satire>

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