Google made quite a few updates to its mapping program on Wednesday, including the capability for users to report problems, a pledge to permanently blur peoples' faces in its database after a year, and an expansion of Street View.
Google has added a "Report a Problem" link on its maps along with directions so that users can report inaccuracies: if, for instance, the name of a park has altered, a road has been closed; otherwise a particular building has been knocked down.
"Once we have received your edit or suggestion we will confirm it with other users, data sources, or imagery," says Andrew Lookingbill, a software engineer at Google and he wrote this in a blog post. "We hope to resolve each alteration within a month."
Put forward your e-mail address, and Google will alert you when modify has been made.
In the meantime, the company is looking to add new datasets to Maps and at present they are working on adding biking directions, Lookingbill wrote.
However what if Google's Street View cameras capture your picture on the street?The company has previously pledged to blur out faces on the public version of Street View, although Google kept the un-blurred photos in its servers.
"We keep these un-blurred images in our databases so we can be able to build better products, for instance by persistently improving our blurring technology so that it obscures more of the things it ought to and less of the things it shouldn't," Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, wrote in a blog post. "For instance, we may need to read a street sign in a Street View image to make in no doubt that the street is appropriately named on Google Maps."
In June, however, the Article 29 Working Party and a group of 27 European data protection authorities has asked Google to set a time limit on how long they keep unblurred photos in their database.
"Starting today, we will everlastingly blur images on our internal database within one year of their publication on Street View," Fleischer wrote. "This means that long period the only photocopy we keep will be the blurred version. In countries where Street View is previously launched the year long maintenance period will start today."
In toting up, Google pledged to fast-track any requests for image exclusion in Street View.
"We will move those images to the front of the queue, and everlastingly blur those pictures in our records as promptly as possible," Fleischer said.
During the next few months, Google will also launch revamped Street View Web sites with more complete information about the service and where the company's cars are driving.
In recent times Google car made a trip to Canada. Google Street View is now live in Vancouver, Whistler, Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Squamish, Banff, Calgary, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City as well as Halifax, Google announced Wednesday.
Google has added a "Report a Problem" link on its maps along with directions so that users can report inaccuracies: if, for instance, the name of a park has altered, a road has been closed; otherwise a particular building has been knocked down.
"Once we have received your edit or suggestion we will confirm it with other users, data sources, or imagery," says Andrew Lookingbill, a software engineer at Google and he wrote this in a blog post. "We hope to resolve each alteration within a month."
Put forward your e-mail address, and Google will alert you when modify has been made.
In the meantime, the company is looking to add new datasets to Maps and at present they are working on adding biking directions, Lookingbill wrote.
However what if Google's Street View cameras capture your picture on the street?The company has previously pledged to blur out faces on the public version of Street View, although Google kept the un-blurred photos in its servers.
"We keep these un-blurred images in our databases so we can be able to build better products, for instance by persistently improving our blurring technology so that it obscures more of the things it ought to and less of the things it shouldn't," Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, wrote in a blog post. "For instance, we may need to read a street sign in a Street View image to make in no doubt that the street is appropriately named on Google Maps."
In June, however, the Article 29 Working Party and a group of 27 European data protection authorities has asked Google to set a time limit on how long they keep unblurred photos in their database.
"Starting today, we will everlastingly blur images on our internal database within one year of their publication on Street View," Fleischer wrote. "This means that long period the only photocopy we keep will be the blurred version. In countries where Street View is previously launched the year long maintenance period will start today."
In toting up, Google pledged to fast-track any requests for image exclusion in Street View.
"We will move those images to the front of the queue, and everlastingly blur those pictures in our records as promptly as possible," Fleischer said.
During the next few months, Google will also launch revamped Street View Web sites with more complete information about the service and where the company's cars are driving.
In recent times Google car made a trip to Canada. Google Street View is now live in Vancouver, Whistler, Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Squamish, Banff, Calgary, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City as well as Halifax, Google announced Wednesday.
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