The European Union has ordered Google to take down its Street View images after six months instead of 12 months. The EU's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party also wants warnings when Google's Street View cameras visit a neighborhood. An analyst says Google has been arrogant with concerns about Street View and is paying the price.

Google can't seem to get a break these days. Beyond the Google Buzz bashing and the Google Video conviction controversy, the search titan is wrangling with the European Union on privacy issues. The EU ordered Google to take down images it captures for its Street View service after six months.

Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth. The service offers a 360-degree view and panoramic views from the street in various areas around the world. The service rolled out in May 2007.

Currently, Google holds Street View images for a year. However, the EU's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party is pushing for Google to delete the images much sooner, calling 12 months a "disproportionate" amount of time.

"Europe went south on Street View. An awful lot of citizens are concerned with the product. The end result is that is driving regulatory interest," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "Once you get a lot of citizens upset, you are going to have politicians that take notice and take action."

High EU Standards

Bloomberg obtained a letter that the Working Party sent to Google. The letter expresses concern that Street View continues to raise data-protection issues. EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said, "In Europe, we have high standards for data protection. I expect that all companies to play according to the rules of the game."

The Working Party also called for Google to reveal to citizens more information about when its Street View cars will be mapping in their neighborhood. Google deploys cars around the United Kingdom to take photographs.

"Google needs to raise much more awareness of Street View cars going though people's streets, as there is an option to opt out of appearing in them but no one knows about it," said the commissioner's office.

Google Responds

Google disagrees with the EU's request. Google lawyer Peter Fleischer said the need to retain the unblurred images is legitimate and justified -- to ensure the quality and accuracy of maps, to improve the ability to rectify mistakes in blurring, as well as to use the data to build better map products.

"We have publicly committed to a retention period of 12 months from the date on which images are published on Street View," Fleisher said, "and this is the period which we will continue to meet globally."

Some experts have suggested that Europe is more concerned about privacy than the U.S. But Enderle doesn't believe that's the case. The larger reason why the EU may be meddling in Street View retention policies is because people got scared, he said.

"Google didn't get its arms around the message but got incredibly arrogant in how they dealt with it, and now they are facing regulators. They are learning how to play government, but they are learning very slowly," Enderle said.

"Google wants to learn by doing rather than looking at what happened with Microsoft and learning from it," he said. "This is a case where they are repeating an awful lot of Microsoft's mistakes -- and at an increasing rate."

By Jennifer LeClaire