According to Google, very few Germans have decided to opt out of having their homes displayed on Google Street View.
Google says that less than 3 per cent of Germans have opted out of Street View, even after Google doubled the time period in which people could request to have their homes blurred out on the service.
Few Street View opt-outs
"We are about to launch Street View images in 20 large German cities," blogged Andreas Tuerk, Street View product manager in Germany,
According to Google, out of a total of 8,458,084 homes in those 20 cities, it had received 244,237 requests (2.89 per cent of the households) to have houses or apartments blurred out on Street View.
Google has offered every German household in each city the option to opt-out of being on Street View since April 2009.
German launch imminent
However, Google's Street View man in Germany does add a word of caution, noting that:
"With these kind of processes it cannot be guaranteed that every request made will be fully dealt with. In some cases for example the addresses could not be clearly assigned because the specifications were not legible or the descriptions of buildings were not precise enough."
Google Street View is set to launch in Germany later this year, with users still being given the option to opt-out of having their house shown on the service post-launch.
Via Reuters
