EU DP a problem for Google maps

March 3 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc., the owner of the most popular search engine, may not map Europe again with photos for its Street View service if European Union data-protection regulators reduce the images’ storage time from 12 months to 6.
“I think we would consider whether we want to drive through Europe again, because it would make the expense so draining,” Michael Jones, Google’s chief technology advocate and founder of Google Earth, said in an interview at the Cebit Technology Fair in Hanover.
Google has negotiated with EU authorities, agreeing to one- year storage from the day the images are published on Street View, according to Jones. Shorter periods won’t be possible as Google can’t reprocess its data quicker because of software restraints, he said.