The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has confirmed that it is investigating a formal complaint lodged by Privacy International about Google’s controversial Street View service.
An ICO spokeswoman told Amateur Photographer this morning: ‘We have received a complaint from Privacy International. We are looking into that at the moment.’
She declined to comment further at this stage.
No-one from Privacy International was available for comment at the time of writing.
This time yesterday the ICO had yet to receive any complaints about Google’s new service.
Though the watchdog’s spokesman stressed that Google Street View is a ‘legal application’ in the UK, he said that the ICO would launch an investigation if Google was seen to breach an individual’s right to privacy on a ‘systematic’ basis without ‘safeguards’ in place.
Since the service was launched last week, Google has agreed to remove certain controversial images after it received complaints from members of the public.
However, a Google spokeswoman denies it was ‘forced’ to take such action, contrary to the way the story has been reported by elements of the media.
