Google's Street View Starts Blacking Out Parts of the U.K.

I find this somewhat humorous because London has tons of surveillance cameras all around the city, but since the launch of Google's Street View in the U.K., dozens of photos have been removed after privacy complaints (and for other reasons, like one of a man relieving himself on a street).

Street View images can be removed via a simple process, as I've indicated before, by bringing up Street View Help, click a link, and select "This image infringes on my privacy," or any of a few other reasons (see above).

And that's apparently what's happening. According to a Google spokesperson, the number of removal requests has reached the "hundreds," but it had been "less than expected."

"We take privacy very seriously which is why when we announced Street View for the UK we explained our easy to use removals process for images people found inappropriate - simply click to report a concern and report the image."

One such image which was removed is above: a man exiting a sex shop. His face is blurred, but still. Google says its software automatically blurs '99.9 per cent' of faces and car number plates.

The British cities on Street View are Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Southampton, Swansea and York.