If you see a car like this one, seen on the streets of London in October 2008, it sees you, too. (Harold Cunningham/Getty Images)

As it turns out, not everyone wants a picture of their front door on Google Street View. Germans, for instance, are pushing back, according to an article I saw in Der Spiegel. Johannes Caspar is in charge of data privacy issues for the city of Hamburg, and according to the Spiegel article, he’s struck a deal that addresses 12 possible data privacy law violations.

Data privacy laws are more strict in Germany than they are here in the United States, the article says. It’s not just in Hamburg, either. Der Spiegel points out that Street View cars are sparking outrage in other parts of the country.

This is just one of a number of stories I’ve seen over the past few months regarding people’s objections to Street View. Sir Paul McCartney made headlines a few days ago — like this one in the Daily Telegraph — for having his London house removed from Street View. A Google spokesperson responded to an inquiry by the paper by saying “…millions have used it and the vast majority are very happy to have their house included.”

Oh really?

That must be why, as the Daily Telegraph article points out, Broughton residents made a human chain to keep Street View cars from taking pictures of their homes. Some people feel that criminals can use the photos to case homes for break-ins. In Japan, Gizmodo says, Google had to lower the height of its cameras because it could see over residents’ fences.

Local governments in North Carolina have joined an anti-Internet-predator group, according to an article in The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer, demanding Google blur out the faces of kids to prevent predators from being able to identify possible targets.

Google’s even using pedal power to take Street View pictures of British footpaths, according to CNET.co.uk. That’ll help Street View map paths too narrow for cars.

Should Google limit Street View efforts to non-residential areas? Or are people just being too sensitive?

For more on Google and related topics, take a look at these links:

How Google Works
How GPS Photo Taggers Work
How Digital Cameras Work