Google Street View goes live in Canadian cites
Last Updated: Wednesday, October 7, 2009 | 10:42 AM ET
The service is now available in Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax, Vancouver, Squamish, B.C., Whistler, B.C., Ottawa, Kitchener, Ont., and Waterloo, Ont.
The service, which is already available in cities in the U.S., the U.K., Spain, Australia, Japan and several other countries, provides close-up, 360-degree views of city streets as they would be seen by someone driving along them. The images are linked to the company's Google Maps and Google Earth applications.
Google has been filming Street View images in these 11 Canadian cities since 2007.
Google has tried to address the privacy concerns of Street View brought up by Privacy Commissioner of Canada by adding privacy features to the service.
Those features include the automatic blurring of faces and licence plates to avoid identifying people or cars and an easy method to request to have images removed.
A street view service provided by another company already exists in Canada. That service, which includes images of Vancouver, Whistler and Squamish, was launched by another company, Vancouver-based Canpages Inc., in March.
However, B.C. falls outside the jurisdiction of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as the province's provincial laws are very similar to federal laws and take precedence within B.C.
If the company expands its imagery to other provinces, as it has said it intends to, then Denham's office would have jurisdiction, she confirmed. However, so far, Canpages has not contacted the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
Google Street View was first launched in the U.S. in May 2007. Four months later, Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart warned the service might not comply with federal privacy legislation, as it included images of identifiable people that had been collected without their consent.
Google Street View goes live in Canadian cites including Calgary
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