The German government has warned internet giant Google it is considering legal moves to prevent the firm's Street View from displaying images of the country's cities and streets, according to an interview Saturday.
Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner told Focus magazine she was investigating "legal steps and possible changes to the law," to prevent Street View - already available for the US, Britain, France and other countries - from publishing images taken in Germany, dpa reported.
Google rejected Aigner's criticism, and said they had been taking photos of German streets for more than a year with the agreement of the data protection authorities. These pictures are due to appear online later this year.
"Only the smaller regions have not yet been captured," said Google's spokeswoman Lena Wagner.
Last summer Germany settled a dispute with Google over privacy laws, paving the way for photos of German cities to appear alongside other European countries including Italy, France and the UK.
The deal included a provision that Germans could object to photos being taken of their private property. According to a European Union agreement, Google has to announce in advance when it plans to take photos in particular cities.
Wagner said that "some hundred" people had objected to images of their homes appearing online. Any faces and vehicle number plates were blurred so as not to be recognizable, the Google spokeswoman added.
But Aigner said she wanted to reverse the current procedure, by which individuals must inform Google if they did not want their private data to appear online.
Rather, she said, the onus should lie on Google to seek permission from individuals.
Aigner rated the images on Google Street View, which enables viewers to scroll along entire streets, as a "millionfold violation" of privacy rights.
"No secret service in the world would hunt for images in such a cavalier manner," the minister said. She also called for services such as Google Earth, which displays relatively high-definition satellite images, to be legally verified.
Last month, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger threatened Google with tightened data protection laws.
At present, Google Street View does not include images from Germany. The site's images of Britain and other countries are stitched together from photographs taken by vans roaming the streets mounted with cameras.