In Germany -- a country very sensitive to privacy-related issues - people have been asked whether they want to opt out of Google's Street View by having their house blurred in the imagery before the service is launched.
According to Google, 8,458,084 households in 20 of the biggest cities in Germany have had the chance to opt out of Street View since April 2009, and 244,237 households have chosen to do so, which represents 2.89% of the total number.
The households were initially able to opt out by writing a letter to Google, but a few months ago Google introduced an online tool that makes the process easier. Unsurprisingly, Google claims that about two out of three opt-outs came via the online tool.
While 244,237 may seem like a high number, the percentage of the households that have chosen to have their house blurred on Street View is fairly low and gives Google further reassurance that the Street View service is not the privacy time bomb it seemed to be. The service caused privacy concerns from the very beginning, but the privacy issues really came into the spotlight after Google admitted its Street View cars had collected payload data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks.