In light of the situation in Iran, search giant Google has stepped up work to release a tool that will translate Farsi into English and Facebook will be launching a Persian version. Both companies stress privately that there is no political motivation in what and that their main goal is to facilitate communication and the flow of information. Read more here
Greece’s data protection agency has banned Google from expanding its Street View service in the country, pending “additional information” from the firm. Read more here
Google said that its YouTube video-sharing website had been blocked in China.
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London’s office workers have been wasting employers’ time this week with Google’s Street View. Putting together millions of images of London (and other cities) Google has created a virtual metropolis to explore. Of course, most people haven’t really been exploring, just looking up their homes and offices (the Index on Censorship office was a little disappointing — I couldn’t see in the window).
It’s still quite fun, and presumably has a useful commercial application — with the possibility of adverts popping up as you ‘walk’ past certain shops, perhaps.
But now the Evening Standard reports that Google has been taking some images down, due to ‘privacy concerns’.
These seem to come from a range of people who have inadvertantly been caught in snapshots by Google’s cameras, including a man caught leaving a Soho sex shop and another vomiting in a Shoreditch street.
Quote of the day: ‘One image which has been removed is of a man vomiting outside a pub in Shoreditch. The screen now just says: “This image is no longer available.” However, by changing the position from which the scene can be viewed, the Evening Standard was easily able to view the man being sick from a different angle.‘