No, it’s not the country that was missing—but the detailed Street View maps we’ve come to rely on. Austria will now join nearly all of Europe in the app. Of EU countries, only Germany will continue to be a blank for the walk-through images.
Street View has been a feature of Google Maps since 2007, but has raised privacy issues in a number of countries, despite Google’s processing images to blur out faces, license plates and occasional caught-in-the-act misbehavior.
But the big kerfluffle that caused an end to filming in Austria and Germany in 2010 was the discovery that the camera-equipped cars that make the maps were also “accidentally” recording personal data from wireless networks along the route. Both countries banned the project; although Austria lifted the ban a year later, Google has waited until now to resume.
The vehicles are now photo-only, and will start their survey with Vienna, Linz and Graz. Google says the results will launch in 6 to 12 months.
Photo: Padaguan/Wikimedia
