Street View UK

 
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Privacy

Public access only

Street View contains imagery that is no different from what you might see driving or walking down the street. Imagery of this kind is available in a wide variety of formats for cities all around the world. In select cases, Google will partner with an organisation such as the National Trust to schedule imagery collection of their property.

Street View images are not real time

Our images show only what our vehicles were able to see on the day that they drove past the location. Afterward, it takes at least a few months to process the collected images before they appear online. This means that images you look at on Street View could be anywhere from a few months to a few years old.

Individuals and license plates are blurred

We have developed cutting-edge face and license plate blurring technology that is applied to all Street View images. This means that if one of our images contains an identifiable face (for example that of a passer-by on the pavement) or an identifiable license plate, our technology will automatically blur it out, meaning that the individual or the vehicle cannot be identified. When our detectors have missed something, and occasionally they do, users can easily let us know.

You can request removal of an image

We provide easily accessible tools allowing users to ask us to remove any images that feature inappropriate content (for example: nudity), or to remove any picture that features the user, their family, their car or their home. Below, you can review the steps to make a request.

How to Report a Concern

If you've found an image that you believe contains objectionable content, just follow these steps:

  1. Locate the image in Street View.
  2. Click "Report a problem" in the bottom-left of the image window. 
  3. Complete the form and click "Submit".

That's it. We review reports promptly.






Street View & Privacy

The Information Commissioner's Office is the UK's independent public body set up to promote access to official information and protect personal information. This is what they said about Street View when we first launched in the UK in 2009.

“Following publicity about vans collecting images of streets preparatory to the future launch of the Google Streetview service in UK, the ICO had a further meeting with Google to understand the steps they are taking to address privacy concerns. We are satisfied that Google is putting in place adequate safeguards to avoid any risk to the privacy or safety of individuals, including the blurring of vehicle registration marks and the faces of anyone included in Streetview images.

Although it is possible that in certain limited circumstances an image may allow the identification of an individual, it is clear that Google are keen to capture images of streets and not individuals. Further there is an easy mechanism by which individuals can report an image that causes them concern to Google and request that it is removed.

Images are not 'real time' and there is a delay between taking an image and its publication so that it could not be used to make decisions about an individual's current whereabouts.”