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Mapping service of Google Street faces legal challenges

Nearly half of the 60 worldwide legal or criminal investigations faced by Google relate to the company's Street View service. It is facing around 28 actions against the mapping service, 11 from inside the US.

Although in the U.K., the country's information commissioner last week lifted some of the heat on Google's suspected breach of the British Data Protection Act, the search giant still faces lawsuits or criminal investigations in every continent except the Antarctic. Its products have been the subject of bans or threatened bans in at least 23 countries, and Google faces 33 lawsuits in the US alone, according to new estimates by the analysts Aqute Intelligence.

Street View, which shows 360-degree views of towns and cities, kept Google's lawyers particularly busy in the first half of this year. In May, Google admitted that its Street View cars had picked up approximately 600 gigabytes of personal data from Wi-Fi connections while mapping homes in more than 30 nations. Cue litigations from internet service providers, private companies and aggrieved citizens.

Some of those aggrieved object to pictures of their home being made public, while others take umbrage over Google's apparently inadvertent collection of personal data. All actions boil down to an individual's right to privacy — and what information requires prior consent before being made publicly accessible. Of the 60 litigations faced by Google worldwide, 28 pertain to Street View: 11 in the U.S., 14 in Europe, two in Australasia and one in Asia. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010

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