Pixiq

The Czech authorities (Office for Personal Data Protection, or UOOU, to be specific), ruled today to forbid any further photographs or data gathering by Google StreetView teams in the Czech Republic. The order only applies to any images or data not already available on the internet, and will stand until an investigation can be conducted about StreetView's legality.

This comes just a few months after Google admitted to German authorities that they'd accidentally collected personal data, while doing their StreetView duty, from unsecured WiFi networks. The UOOU cites a lack of proper licensing as the reason for putting a stop to new StreetView image capture, but Google has applied twice and been turned down both times.

In a nation whose culture values both privacy and law, Google may continue to hit walls in their efforts to expand the StreetView service to a wider part of the Czech Republic. Anything collected legally prior to October 2009, however, is fair game. Lots of photos of Prague already exist. 

Lawsuits and investigations over Google's use of photos and data are in progress all over the world, and in this day and age, digital capture and display of images and GPS data makes it a breeze for anyone to disseminate this kind of information. How do YOU feel about images of your home or workplace being so easily accessible? If you don't mind the images being available, how much accompanying data would be too much?