

#Google earth 2017 images street view full#
With one of the biggest Google competitors now offering its version of Street View in the country, it's hopefully just a question of time until Google speeds up the process of returning to the country in full force, after these initial talks three years ago. Interestingly enough, Apple does offer the option to blur and delete imagery in Germany. A 2019 Welt am Sonntag report details that the company might soon no longer be required to offer citizens the option to pixelate their houses due to the infamous GDPR law, which could make the process of creating Street View imagery in Germany so much easier. While Apple is already happily taking and publishing Look Around imagery, Google has been working on a comeback, too. I have to admit I don't know my way around Munich much, but still, here's an up-to-date look at the Maxmonument. Judging by an Apple list, the company is currently taking images and mapping cities all over the country, making clear that this likely isn't just a one-time exemption for Munich, but a wider nation-wide effort.

The company claims that it made sure to make any identifiable information unrecognizable. It’s initially only available for Munich, but more cities are supposed to be joining it.Īpple says that it worked closely with the Bavarian privacy agency to ensure that all regional privacy laws and protocols are followed.

The company launched a number of updates to its own Maps service this month, including “completely new maps for Germany.” As part of the update, the company is providing more 3D maps, improved pedestrian routes, and-you guessed it-Look Around, its take on Street View. It seems like Apple has set out to change all that. Bing Maps and HERE both offer Street View-like imagery of their own, but neither makes it easy to access these images, with no obvious shortcuts within their services. Google Earth and Street View as an historical record JOn March 30th, 2017, a fire started under an overpass along the I-85, one of the major routes through Atlanta, Georgia, USA. While Google hasn’t done much to change the status quo in Germany, a few other companies tried to make up for Street View’s sorry state. Google’s automated tools weren't good enough to implement many of the requests, so the company had to resort to manually blur buildings that were left exposed erroneously, forcing it to hire 200 additional workers. It turned out that German citizens were very eager to protect their oh-so-private house fronts, with over 200,000 requests reaching Google before it even launched the service in the 20 biggest cities of the country. Thus, the company was forced to offer a tool that allowed people to blur their houses, with raw images deleted from Google’s servers. However, things didn’t go far enough for the German privacy regulation body, and there is a general historical distrust in Germany when it comes to offering private data.
#Google earth 2017 images street view license#
Along the way, the service was met with differing degrees of privacy concerns and issues, prompting Google to introduce automated face and license plate blurring algorithms. Google has specifically identified these popular places and mapped aerial images and 3D data points to give you a virtual tour of that place. When Google launched Street View in 2007, it was only available in limited US cities before expanding to almost every conceivable backwater in many countries around the world. One of the biggest features of Google Earth is that it allows you to see high-quality 3D view of popular places such as the Eiffel Tower, Mount Everest, the Taj Mahal, and more. Why Street View is hopelessly outdated in Germanyīefore we dive into what could happen, we first need to explore what went wrong.
