Czechs Curtail Google Street

Authorities in the Czech Republic banned Google from expanding its Street View mapping feature in the country, an official said Sept 14. Google Czech Republic said it wasn't deterred by what it considered to be a temporary decision and added that the dispute was mostly about technical issues in collecting the photographs used in Street View, which provides Internet users with panoramic views and photographs of neighborhoods from streets across the globe. The technology giant said it would continue to cooperate with the Czech Office for Personal Data Protection, "and hope that the issues will be solved in the near future." In the meantime, the company said it wouldn't collect any new data in the country, but that photos taken previously in Prague and other cities were still available.